Two Worlds
by sylphiawings
Summary: When Aerith moves from the slums to the richest Sector of Midgar, she has trouble fitting in. But when she gets along with her cousin, meets new friends, and stare into the eyes of a certain black spiky-haired youth - everything changes.
1. New Beginning

Aerith looked around.

She was standing in a vast garden full of flowers, of every kind and every color. Each of them glowed gently underneath the warm light of the sun. Each and every one of them was beautiful. She knelt down beside a white rose and smelled it; the scent soothed her soul, and right now she felt like she was at eternal peace.

But where was this place?

Then she heard a sudden loud ringing, one that pierced her ears so badly she covered her hands over her ears to block out the noise. The flower garden gradually disappeared. Soon after, as if to accompany the ringing, Aerith heard a talking voice.

_Aerith… _She turned. Nobody was there.

_rith… Up…_

"AERITH, WAKE UP!"

Aerith opened her eyes abruptly. The alarm clock on the table beside her bed was still ringing rather annoyingly. Her hand swiftly banged the clock, which ceased the ringing. She rubbed her eyes and saw her cousin, Cissnei, by the door of her room. Groaning loudly, she took the pillow and buried her head in it.

"Aerith, today's the first day of school! We don't want to be late." Cissnei scanned her half-dead cousin. She concluded that she would not wake up even if there was a huge storm destroying the house. She scratched her head frustratingly and grabbed her blanket. With a yank, she threw the blanket off Aerith's bed.

"WAKE. UP. NOW." Cissnei slapped her cousin's back, intending to wake her up by force.

With an exceptionally loud groan from Aerith, she threw her pillow at Cissnei. Apparently her eyes weren't well adjusted yet after waking up, since it missed. Giving up, she sat on the edge of her bed, eyes still sore from sleeping. She stifled a yawn.

"What… time is it?" Aerith asked through weary eyes.

"It's 6:30, and you've got around half an hour to get dressed. Your uniform is in your closet." Cissnei pointed to the dark brown wardrobe beside the bed. Aerith yawned again. Cissnei threw her an ugly look. "What time did you sleep last night?"

Aerith scrambled out of her bed and went towards the closet. "Around… 3 to 4 in the morning?"

Cissnei slapped her forehead. "_Again?_ You know, Aerith, since today's your first day in school, I was half-expecting you to be a bit excited. Instead, you go to our greenhouse and tend your flowers until dawn! These past two weeks, that's all you ever did." She grunted.

Aerith scowled at her cousin. It was true; ever since Aerith moved to her cousin's house for school in Midgar Sector 8, she's been doing nothing but to visit Cissnei's family's greenhouse. She can't help it though – she loves flowers. A lot of them grew near where she previously lived, Sector 5 slums, and she's not used to not having them around her anymore. It irritates her, although she's pretty glad to have escaped the slums and is able to attend a proper school.

"Well, it's not like I know anything about Sector 8. This place is like a maze to me," Aerith remarked as she took out her school uniform: a white short-sleeved tuxedo shirt with a black U-neck vest, and a black necktie to go with it. Her checkered black-and-white skirt hung just above her knees. She noticed that the logo of the school is embroidered on the tie.

Surprisingly, she quite liked her new school uniform. At least it was better than the one in her old school - if you could call it one.

"We'll need to hurry or else we'll have to sprint to school," Cissnei said impatiently, tapping her foot while looking at the watch in her hand. Aerith realized that her cousin was already wearing her uniform. Knowing that, she quickly slipped into hers – only to find out that she had no shoes.

"Um, Cissnei?"

"What?" Her cousin eyed her questioningly.

"Is there a dress code for shoes?"

"Ah," Cissnei observed the brunette, "No, there isn't. You can borrow my socks and sneakers." With that, she dashed out and rummaged through her room.

Aerith rushed to the bathroom, only to wash her face and brush her teeth; she's bathed already before she slept, since she was gardening. By the time she went out, Cissnei handed her dark blue converse sneakers and white leg warmers.

"They should fit with you, since you're small and all," Cissnei laughed at her cousin as she examined the shoes.

Aerith pointed out the leg warmers. "I thought we were supposed to wear socks?"

The redhead laughed heartily as she dragged her cousin back to her room. "Sorry, I'm a bit fresh out of socks," she explained, "And you didn't want to do any shopping for the past two weeks. Not that I could do anything about it." Cissnei gestured Aerith to wear her shoes, while she braided her long brown hair. "You've been in the slums so long you've never seen anything above the plate. Except for this house, of course."

Aerith grimaced at her cousin, but nonetheless she couldn't help thinking she was right. The world below the plate is an entirely different world compared to the one above; you go to the same class with elementary kids, there are lots of loose vendors, and also many junk thrown from above that litter the floor of the slums. The only reason she was lucky enough to escape all that is because her Aunt Naia – her mother, Elmyra Gainsborough's sister and Cissnei's mother – took her in due to Elmyra's early death. Aerith was pretty aware that her mother was close with her sister, but they rarely meet.

Although there's the fact that she hardly ever met her mother's family, she's extremely thankful for them letting her to stay with them. They're all very nice – she became fast friends with Cissnei in just a few days – and they treat her like a genuine family. It really made her feel right at home. But, the world above the plate is still extremely foreign for Aerith to get used to.

And now, the fact that she is going to a proper high school still frightens her.

Cissnei finished braiding her hair. Seeing that Aerith did not talk, she guessed what was on her mind.

"Are you scared, Aerith?"

Said person turned so abruptly by her statement that the braided part of her hair accidentally slapped Cissnei's face. "Oh, sorry! I didn't mean that." Cissnei laughed instead, leaving Aerith in doubt. She then paused laughing for Aerith to answer her question.

"… In truth, yes, I am. But, you'll be right beside me, right, Cissnei?" Aerith wished, very deep in her heart, that her cousin would be by her side for the duration of the school year. Cissnei sighed.

"Of course I will. I wouldn't leave you alone!" She rushed to the door and tugged on the doorknob. "Let's go. We're running quite late from schedule – we'll have to eat while we run to school."

Cissnei yanked Aerith's hand outside her room and the two dashed downstairs to the kitchen, to find two toasts and their schoolbags sitting on the table. They both grabbed their bags, popped the toast in their mouths, and hurriedly scrambled out the door of Cissnei's house. The redhead bolted the gate of their front yard open, and they dashed out towards school.

"What about Aunt and Uncle?" Aerith wondered aloud as she kept pace with her fast cousin.

"They're probably already at work. Today's the first day of work as well," Cissnei said as she ate her toast furiously while checking her watch. "Dear god, it's already 7? Aerith, we'll have to run faster. Careful not to drop your toast – or your bag." While saying that, she had already run ahead of Aerith for about 2 meters. Aerith quickly finished her toast and ran towards her cousin. She was surprised that she could catch up with Cissnei, her being fast with her feet and all.

"Over here!" Both took a turn to the right, and Aerith caught a glimpse of a large building on the left road before running up to her cousin. She concluded that that place is where Cissnei's parents work.

After sprinting through a long, straight road, they took a turn to the left, and Aerith started to see a few students from her school. They were all jogging, although not as fast as the two cousins, all desperately trying to reach school before the bell rings. A small turn to the right showed Aerith their school.

It was a large, three-story building encircling a wide, rectangular yard with a fountain in the middle. The water streaming from the fountain gleamed in the sunlight. The yard had numerous flower beds, and also benches lining in front of them. The buildings that lined each four sides of the yard all had windows. To the left and right there were courts for sports. Aerith could see a tennis and basketball court. Most of the students were sitting on the benches in the yard; some were entering the building surrounding it. The whole place looked like a Parthenon, except there's no roof in the middle and it's much more modern.

Cissnei paused for breath just on the front lawn of the school; Aerith followed suit. Both of them gasped for air, as they both walked towards the arch of the building. Cissnei moved towards a water fountain, Aerith following closely by, and started to drink. The brunette did the same shortly afterwards.

After both slumped onto a nearby bench, Cissnei laughed. "That was the best run I have had in days. I never knew you were the athletic type, Aerith." She rummaged her schoolbag and checked a yellow paper – Aerith was still a bit out of breath.

"I didn't know, either," she breathed, "It came as a surprise for me." Aerith leaned towards her cousin, while looking at the curious yellow sheet she just took out. It was a schedule. After scanning it, she slumped back onto her seat and was completely amazed by the size of the school. It really looked like a huge university campus than a normal school; the yard itself should be at least 30-50 meters wide, Aerith estimated.

"This place is _huge,_" She said in awe. "Enough to fit 100 families that can live in luxury." Turning to Cissnei, who finished examining her schedule, Aerith tugged on her shirt. "You must've gotten lost on your first day."

Cissnei scoffed at her cousin's comment. "Well, it was pretty hard for me to know places and to get around easily – this place is pretty big-" Aerith rolled her eyes sarcastically at the understatement, "-but there are some useful tips to know the school better."

"And what is that?"

"One: there's always shortcuts." Cissnei winked at the braided brunette, which left her raise one eyebrow in confusion.

"Giving me cryptic answers won't make me feel any be-"before Aerith could finish her sentence, a loud burst of laughter came from the direction of the fountain that stood in the middle of the yard.

Both girls turned to the noise, and Aerith could see a group of people sitting on the edge of the fountain, centered on four of the most handsome people she has ever seen.

One of them had short brown hair – he was standing over a sitting silver long-haired man who crossed his arms and was giving him a derisive look as the former was patting a normal male student's back. The other two, both black-haired, were apparently the ones laughing as they peered at their other two friends. One of the black-haired people had his hair fall just on top of his shoulder – the other had spiky hair that defied gravity. All four were extremely fine men.

Aerith looked at them in awe, and turned to Cissnei for an explanation – only to see that she was frowning hard. Her forehead scrunched itself together, and she was no longer smiling. Aerith was pretty surprised to see her this way; she has never seen Cissnei so upset before.

Before Aerith had the chance to ask what was wrong, Cissnei walked indignantly towards the four and their group of people. Aerith scrambled behind her, but was careful to keep a distance. The redhead then stopped in front of the group, arms crossed.

"Ehem." The small but lively group turned to Cissnei, and the handsome men looked surprised seeing her, sans the long silver-haired one, standing in front of them. Aerith hid behind a nearby flower bed, scared of what is going to happen.

"Start of the year, and you guys are causing a ruckus already?" Cissnei tapped her feet in annoyance.

The brown short-haired man took a step forward. "Well well well, if it isn't miss Student Council." Aerith gapped at the words 'Student Council' but did not make a noise. The man continued, "We're just having a bit of fun, is that so wrong? Madame Cissnei." The black straight-haired man behind him chuckled slightly, apparently amused.

"Very funny, Genesis." Cissnei tapped her foot more furiously now, and Aerith would hate to see what her expression is right now. "Let go of that kid. He's a first-year, isn't he? You SOLDIERs are already harassing new students?"

"Hey, chill, Cissnei. I was just showing him the gang." The man, now named Genesis, as Aerith knew, put his arm around the first-year male. "Doesn't he look happy? Aren't ya, kid?" Genesis gave a smile to him, and the student smiled crookedly in return. The two black-haired men laughed once again.

"Let go of him," Cissnei said through gritted teeth. She grabbed the male student out of Genesis' hands, who blushed furiously as she got hold of his wrist. Genesis chuckled at the student's face.

"Oh look, he likes you already. As expected from the Primadona of the school. And since that's true, would you like to go out with me?"

"No way in hell, Genesis." Cissnei gave him a glare that even Aerith was scared of.

Suddenly, the silver-haired man stood up and patted Genesis' shoulder. Cissnei glared at him as well. "And you, Sephiroth. Honestly, can't you control your petty gang? You're an honor student. At least let the new kids settle before they become toys for your precious SOLDIER." The man named Sephiroth gave Cissnei a stare, but quickly ignored her. He turned his attention to Genesis.

"Let's go. The bell's about to ring; there's no point in staying here any longer." And with that, he walked away – the group that surrounded him gave way while sighing dreamily. Genesis scoffed.

Cissnei looked at her watch. "Oh damn! It's this time already?" She turned to Aerith. "Aerith, let's go! You need to go to the reception." Cissnei grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the left; Aerith could feel Genesis' stare on her as they passed. But when she turned towards the remaining black-haired people, the spiky one had his eyes locked onto hers for a brief while. She blushed before turning away and followed Cissnei.

She couldn't help but think that those eyes were the most beautiful things she has ever seen.

_A/N: AAAAAH! Finally, my first fanfic! Well, one that I actually have the courage to post, but anyway. I decided that it's time for my trolling days in to be over, and since recently I just played Crisis Core… ;D__  
I really love Zerith, I really do. My ultimate OTP for Final Fantasy! And I'd like to admit that Cissnei was a last-minute addition to my idea list.  
Please Rate and Comment! Be as brutal as you can, I need all the feedback I can get._


	2. Meetings

They stood in front of an office-like building, although it was relatively smaller than the main school construction. Cissnei greeted some people that passed by, some even calling her 'Student Council'. Aerith concluded that Cissnei's role for the school is quite important. Few of those people looked questioningly at Aerith, who ducked in embarrassment. If what Genesis said was true, that Cissnei was a Primadona, then surely Aerith being her cousin would be swamped with her fans. She cringed at the thought, because she isn't used to people crowding around her.

Not that she's sure to be crowded by them, but the fact that there's a possibility made her feel a bit sheepish.

"Over here, Aerith," Cissnei said as they approached a woman sitting behind a rather large desk. The woman looked up and smiled genuinely at Cissnei.

"Why, hello, Cissnei," she said. "Here to drop a few announcements?"

"No, Miss Alde." She gestured Aerith to come forward. "I'm just dropping off my cousin."

Miss Alde examined Aerith from head to toe. "My, what a cute cousin you have here. Your name?" She held out her hand.

"Aerith Gainsborough," She said as she shook the teacher's hand. "Um… uh, nice to meet you, Miss."

Miss Alde smiled warmly at her. "Very polite cousin you have, Cissnei." Right after she said that, the bell rang, indicating the time to go to class. Cissnei jumped in response, and scurried on to the door.

"Ugh, Aerith, I'll have to leave you here. Miss Alde will show you your schedule and class. Good luck! Hope we'll be in the same class." Before Aerith could respond, Cissnei already flew out of the door. Aerith looked at her cousin disbelievingly, but quickly hid it as Miss Alde approached her from her desk.

"Cissnei's an honor student, you know. She's part of the student council, one of its most promising members, and she's incredibly diligent in class and sports. Surely she has told you about her role in school?" Miss Alde told Aerith as she held out a piece of yellow paper, similar to the one Cissnei was examining earlier.

"Um, no, she hasn't," Aerith stammered in response, "But just today, she had a lot of people greeting her."

Miss Alde laughed. "She's apparently also one of the prettiest girls in school." Aerith took the yellow paper from her hands. She looked at it briefly before Miss Alde gestured her to follow her outside.

"Although, she'll quickly get outshined by you, Aerith. You're not looking so bad yourself. I wonder if it runs in the family?" Miss Alde's warm smile made Aerith really feel at ease; it was extremely similar to her mother's. She can't help but feel a bit lonely at the thought.

"Uh, thank you, Miss Alde," Aerith blushed. She followed her out the door, and together they walked towards the main school building. When they entered the hallway, there were lines of lockers on the walls and doors on both sides. Aerith looked at the vast hallway in wonder before she snapped out of it and ran to keep pace with Miss Alde. They arrived at stairs on the end of the hallway, and climbed up.

"First floor's for first years," Miss Alde explained. "Works also with the second and third floor. Since you're 16, you're a second year. Pretty unique, isn't it? Sorting students by floor?" They walked through a few classes; some Aerith could see were packed with students. "Despite this, your classes can be all over the school. Confusing, but it helps you to get to know the school a bit better." They stopped in front of a class whose doors look like they've been taken from the Victorian age. "And here is your class," Miss Alde said as she pushed the door open. Aerith's heart was ramming against her ribcage.

She saw a relatively large classroom – Aerith estimated that there are around 20 students or more – and they were all grouped into different clusters of people. Some were talking to the teacher, some were crowding in the back, and a few people were looking out the window. Aerith's heart skipped a beat when she saw that spiky black-haired man she saw earlier hanging with Genesis and Sephiroth. All of the students were looking in her direction now. Although, what made that worse, was that she didn't see Cissnei at all.

"Mr Valentine," Miss Alde indicated the teacher who was sitting at his desk in the front, "Your new student is here."

The teacher stood up, and Aerith gasped – He was an extremely fine-looking man that looked too young to be teaching; she estimated he was around 20 years old. He had black hair that passed his shoulders, tied behind his back. His suit was black with a red tie. His eyes were a striking scarlet color; he had the aura that he was a strict but caring person. As he was walking their way, Aerith couldn't help but look at his features.

_This man is my teacher? _Aerith questioned in her head. He stopped in front of Miss Alde and her. As he did so, she realized that the students were still looking at Aerith, especially that guy she met eyes with earlier this morning. She blushed furiously.

Mr Valentine bent over Aerith to see her face clearly – she could hear some female students gasp – and he looked into her eyes. Truth be told, they were fine eyes, but they scared her. The fact that it was red alone made her frightened. Just as she assumed that, he cracked a small smile.

"Welcome to the class. I'm sure you'll feel right at home here. I'll take it from here, Miss Alde." Said person nodded and patted Aerith's back.

"Good luck!" she smiled and walked away. Aerith wished that she'd come back to accompany her here.

Mr Valentine gestured Aerith to follow him to the front of the class. She did so, as she felt pairs of eyes staring at her and some whispering among the students.

"She's cute! And so small…"

"How lucky, to have Mr Valentine look into her eyes."

"She looks a bit different than other girls. I have never seen her around Sector 8 before."

"I saw her running this morning with Cissnei! Wonder why that was though…"

"Ah yeah, me too, she was fast to be able to catch up with _that _Cissnei…"

"I totally want her hair…"

"Who wears leg warmers in the end of summer?" Aerith cursed Cissnei silently for that.

Mr Valentine stood in front of the blackboard, Aerith beside him, and he shushed the students. Aerith saw the spiky-haired man walk to his table at the back just before he met her eyes once more. Again, she blushed silently and turned her head away.

"Write your name on the board." Mr Valentine suddenly whispered into her ear that she jumped. She heard a few small shrieks coming from few of the girls.

Aerith nodded slightly after recovering, and wrote her name on the board. After she finished, she heard someone whisper "what a unique name" just in front of her. Aerith was aware that the person was talking to her, and she smiled sheepishly. The person, a girl with long black hair and brown eyes, grinned and waved back at her.

Mr Valentine started to speak. "Well, as you all can see, she's a new student here at Finale Academy. I'm Mr Vincent Valentine, but you can just call me Mr Valentine. I hope you find your experience at this school enjoyable, Aerith. It's nice to have you in this class." He tilted his head slightly, and gave her the same small smile. Aerith nodded furiously in return. She still can't get used to his scarlet eyes.

"Thank you, um… Mr Valentine." He nodded, and the class started to chatter amongst themselves again. He gestured her to go to a seat.

"Your seat is just behind Yuffie over there. Third column, third row." He pointed at a desk that could possibly be at the middle of the class, if it weren't for a sixth row at the back where the spiky man was sitting. Aerith started walking towards it, and saw that the girl in front of her – Yuffie – beamed at her. She smiled sheepishly once again, and sat down, ignoring the stares of other students on her way.

Mr Valentine walked back to his desk, and some students started talking to him again, occasionally giving glances to the new girl. Mostly girls, Aerith realized, as she looked down when one student looked her way. _Why are there so many handsome men in this school?_ She thought, before suddenly, Yuffie in front of her turned her chair so that she was face-to-face with Aerith.

"Hi! My name's Yuffie Kisaragi. Nice to have ya here, Aerith!" She held out her hand while grinning broadly. Aerith had the feeling that Yuffie would become a really great friend to her.

"Um… hello, Yuffie," Aerith held her hand. Yuffie shook her hand repeatedly before letting go – it made Aerith chuckle a little. When she did, Yuffie gave her the biggest smile she had ever seen.

"Waa! You laughed! That's great!" She continued to beam. "I was afraid that you were those types of girls that wouldn't be easily amused, but I guess I was wrong."

Aerith shook her head. "No, I just… I'm a bit shy. You're a lot like my cousin, both of you are very talkative. She made me feel welcome here." Yuffie scratched her head.

"Cousin? Who is she?"

"Um… Cissnei."

Aerith felt pairs of eyes land on her again; she shuddered slightly before Yuffie gave her an honest expression – she was apparently shocked by the revelation.

"You cousin is Cissnei? _That _Cissnei? Wow!" Yuffie clapped her hands playfully. "She's like the prettiest girl in school. Lots of guys in this class are her fans. Ah, except for Zack, of course." Yuffie rolled her eyes sarcastically. Aerith scrunched her forehead.

"Zack? Who's Zack?"

"That guy sitting in the back there, the one with spiky black hair." Yuffie pointed behind her, and sure enough, Aerith was looking at the spiky-haired man she locked eyes briefly with just now. He was talking animatedly with his friends. "Zack Fair. He's very popular. He's part of SOLDIER."

"SOLDIER?"

"A group of handsome popular guys from around the school." Since it wasn't Yuffie's voice answering her question, she turned around to see the girl with the long black hair that said her name was unique. Now that she was standing, Aerith could see clearly her hourglass body figure.

She continued on, "They're the icons of the school. Each member has a particular trait that specialize them – for example, Zack there, he does Kendo." The girl smiled, and Aerith waved slightly to her. "Hi, I'm Tifa Lockhart. Nice to meet you, Aerith."

Aerith grinned. "Nice meeting you too, Tifa. Thanks for the kind remark you gave me earlier," She said as she blushed. Tifa and Yuffie chuckled at her expression. Because of that, she blushed an even deeper shade of red.

"So, your cousin is Cissnei, huh? No wonder you look cute." Tifa took the empty seat beside Aerith.

Aerith's train of thought landed back on Zack. "Um, can I ask… why is the gang called SOLDIER?"

Yuffie and Tifa looked at each other briefly before Tifa said, "Each of the members can do some sort of self-defense. It's like a small army, you know? Every one of them can take out the mafia on their own, and can still be alive and well the next day."

Aerith gapped at the two girls. "They're _that strong_?"

"Yep, just like a real soldier on the battlefield," Yuffie remarked.

"So Sephiroth and Genesis are strong too?"

Yuffie and Tifa looked surprised that she knew two of the member's names.

"They're the strongest. Sephiroth's like the leader," Tifa said, "But, funny thing is, he's also an honor student. They're both third years, other than Angeal." Aerith concluded that the mysterious other black-haired person she saw this morning was none other than Angeal. He looked fit as a third year.

"Hmm…" Aerith turned around to look at Zack. He was laughing around with his friends, and some of the girls were obviously trying to get his attention. Then, suddenly, he looked at Aerith – their eyes met again, and she realized that his eyes were a beautiful shade of blue. They looked at each other longer than usual, before Aerith turned back to Yuffie and Tifa after realizing what she had just done. She blushed once more, her hands curling into harmless fists.

The two girls didn't realize what she did just now because they were chatting animatedly with each other. Then, quite suddenly, Yuffie asked Aerith, "How come you know Genesis? I can understand why you know Sephiroth, but Genesis…"

"Huh? Ah… this morning, Cissnei was telling Genesis off because he looked like he was annoying a first-year." Aerith gazed at the two girls, who nodded in response. "But he really wasn't, which made me puzzled because Cissnei still kept telling him off even after she found out." Yuffie and Tifa laughed this time, making Aerith confused.

Tifa started explaining, "Genesis and Cissnei are like fire and ice. They don't click. They constantly bicker day by day. I should guess that's why Cissnei didn't stop scolding Genesis."

"But Genesis is fond of Cissnei," Yuffie interrupted, "because he keeps trying to ask her out. Although, he does that with every pretty girl he meets. He tried Tifa out once, but she gently declined." Aerith could see why; Tifa's body is seriously no joke. Tifa just sneered at Yuffie's remark.

"Oh, by the way," Tifa clapped her hands, "What's your next class after homeroom?"

Aerith suddenly remembered the yellow sheet Miss Alde gave her earlier this morning. "Uh, I have History," She said while she took out the sheet and examined it.

"Ah, you're in the same class as me. Perfect timing!" Tifa grinned. Aerith, deep down inside, was truly relieved that she had someone she knew in her next class.

Yuffie scowled. "Huh, I have Math!" She rummaged her bag and got out another yellow sheet. "You're lucky, Tifa. I wanna talk more with Aerith." Aerith couldn't help but smile at her comment.

Right on cue, the bell rang, indicating that homeroom has ended. Mr Valentine stood up and yelled, "Good luck on your first day of school, class! I'll see you all tomorrow, or in my Chemistry lessons." Students grabbed their bags and filed out the Victorian door. Yuffie was no exception.

"I'll see you later, Aerith!" She ran out the door, knocking a few students on the way. Tifa suppressed a laugh.

"Let's go, Aerith. History's not that far." She grabbed her bag and walked out, Aerith following suit. Before she exited class, she could see that Zack was surely taking his time getting out. His friend beside him urged him to hurry up. Zack looked up, and their eyes met again – this time, he showed something close to a smile. Aerith turned unconsciously while blushing. She followed Tifa through the whole way, face red as a lobster.

Aerith realized the reason why she's been blushing so much today. Was it because of a guy named Zack Fair?

_A/N: I'd like to point out that the system in their school is the British system.  
__I imagined Vincent's classroom a bit like a Shinra laboratory, or for those who have played Crisis Core, a bit like the SOLDIER common room where Lazard likes to sit before missions. Sans the very high-tech door, of course.  
I'm very happy with the reviews I got for my first chapter; thanks guys!  
_


	3. Warmth

After a series of short turns, Aerith and Tifa finally arrived at their History class.

Truthfully, along the way, Aerith tried to memorize the route, but she lost it after the first turn. She just realized that she's absolutely lucky to have Tifa, if not she would have been completely lost.

They entered the classroom, which was half-filled with people – both decided to sit near the window, right beside each other. Aerith examined the classroom – no sign of Cissnei anywhere. She wondered if she would be able to have any classes with her today. Tifa's a good friend to Aerith already, but she doesn't feel at ease with her just yet.

_If only Cissnei was here…_ Aerith shook away the thought. She's a big girl; she can handle herself.

Tifa nudged her. "Which reminds me," She started, "You look pretty new around here, even in Sector 8. Do you come from a different Sector? Town, perhaps?"

Aerith was afraid that someone would ask her this question. She took a deep breath and started clarifying, "I'm… not from here. Sector 8 is a very luxurious place for me. You could say that I'm a village girl." If Tifa knew she originated from the slums, below the plate no less, how would she think about her? Aerith decided to not tell her until the time is right.

"Ah, same here." Aerith's eyes bulged in response to Tifa's statement. "I'm not from Sector 8, either; actually, I'm not even from Midgar."

"Then where are you from?"

"A village called Nibelheim." Tifa grinned.

"Nibelheim? Isn't… that pretty far from here?"

"Well, true, if you were to look at its distance from Midgar. Due to technology, transportation doesn't seem to be the problem anymore nowadays, so actually it would be around half-a-day's drive from Nibelheim to reach here. There's a Mako reactor there, so it's an area easy to reach. Ah, but now I live in Edge, the outskirts of town," she said. Tifa took out her pencil case from her bag. Aerith did the same shortly afterwards; the class was beginning to fill itself.

After she did so, Aerith examined her schedule once more; she had Biology next. Before she could ask Tifa what her next subject was, she saw a flash of black hair coming from the entrance of the classroom.

It was Zack. She quickly buried her face into her paper, not wanting him to see her appearance right now. For some odd reason, she reddened; Tifa noticed it and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you okay, Aerith? You seem a bit flustered." Tifa turned her chair to face her as Zack took a seat near the window, two desks behind them.

"I-I-I'm fine. Really, I am." Aerith faced the front, face still buried in her paper, leaving Tifa completely baffled by her behavior right now. "When is class going to start, anyway?"

"Hm… well, Mr Gadwall isn't entirely the type of person that's early, but I'm pretty sure he-"Tifa stopped mid-sentence, forcing Aerith to face her.

"Tifa?" Said person was not looking at Aerith any longer. She was staring at the entrance of the classroom, and Aerith saw a man standing there with spiky blond hair – even spikier than Zack's – whom, she thought, looked exactly like him if not for his hair. The man took a seat near the door, and slumped back onto his seat. He looked… cool.

_Ah, but when you look closely enough, he's not like Zack, _Aerith silently thought. _His look… is completely different._ She unconsciously turned her head behind her, examining Zack, who was also looking at the blond guy with an irritated expression. To Aerith's surprise, he stood up and began walking towards him. For some odd reason, she perked her ears towards their direction.

"Cloud," Zack said when he approached the blond's table. "Why are you sitting here? Come sit in the back with us, buddy." The person named Cloud seemed astonished when he saw Zack. Aerith could swear that she saw the blond's eyes flicker to her direction, but it was too quick for her to confirm.

"Uh, not today, Zack. I'm… not in the mood to sit near the window today." Cloud then crossed his hands on the table and rested his head on it, facing opposite Aerith. She heard Zack give a loud snort before he walked back to his desk. Once again, while he walked, his eyes met Aerith's; she ducked so fast that her forehead hit Tifa's shoulder. She heard Tifa wince in pain.

"Ow! What was that for?" Tifa rubbed her shoulder, her face clearly distracted. Aerith could hear Zack chuckle behind her as he sat down. Her face went into a deep red.

"Sorry," Aerith said apologetically. Tifa decided to shrug it off, and stared at the blackboard. Once in a while, she would glance at Cloud's direction; leaving Aerith to wonder what their connection could possibly be.

Before she could ask, a teacher came in the classroom. "Settle down, guys, we're going to start class." She heard some students scramble to any empty seat – some sat directly behind her, which blocked her view of a certain spiky guy sitting in the back row. The teacher scanned around the classroom, his eyes briefly landing on Aerith, before introducing himself.

"My name is Mr Gadwall. You will call me by that throughout the year, unless I say otherwise." Few of the students snickered. "I will be your History teacher this year, and I hope that you will keep your grades steady to be able to pass your tests." He grabbed textbooks from a shelf and started passing them around, starting from Cloud's table. "Do _not _lose these textbooks; they're essential for you. More than you could possibly know. Okay, Reno?" The whole class turned to the teacher, who was looking at a redhead with spiky head and his long hair tied behind his neck. Aerith concluded that he was definitely Reno.

"Yessir. If you don't mind me saying, if I do lose your textbook, it's only because they keep getting stolen. You know how much people _love_ History, sir." The whole class burst into laughter at Reno's words. Aerith found herself laughing naturally alongside everyone.

Mr Gadwall rolled his eyes. "_Very funny_, Reno. Just don't lose it, or else you might lose your placement in the Student Council." Aerith bulged her eyes on the last two words.

She tugged on Tifa's shirt. "He's part of the Student Council?" Aerith whispered low enough so only Tifa could hear. She nodded.

"Reno's actually a smart person, but his personality… well, you can say he's quite magical. He's the embodiment of 'don't judge a book by its cover'." Tifa smiled at Aerith. "Mr Gadwall's sometimes in charge of the Student Council."

Aerith tilted her head. "Sometimes?" Before Tifa could respond to her question, Mr Gadwall passed a book to them both. He looked at Aerith questioningly.

"Are you a new student?" As he asked her that, the whole class gazed upon her. She could feel eyes on her back. She accepted her textbook, face red.

"Y-y-yes, sir."

"Well, don't you look awfully familiar with someone. Anyways, welcome to Finale Academy," Mr Gadwall said. "I hope you will enjoy your experience here."

Aerith nodded, face still slightly red. "T-thank you, sir."

And with that, Mr Gadwall resumed class; Aerith found herself quite interested with the subject. He talked about the world, and the Lifestream, and how people will return there when they die. He also mentioned Ancients, and a whole lot of other topics that she didn't learn in her previous school; it kept her interested with the subject, unlike some students who dozed off a bit during his lecture. When the bell rang, some students ran out of class before Mr Gadwall could say anything.

"Ck, the nerve…" He shook his head. "Anyway, today we'll have no homework. I will see you all next lesson." Tifa stood up, Aerith following suit. Before she could ask what her next subject was, Tifa tried to chase after Cloud as he left for class. But Cloud was fast; he was out of the class in seconds, and Tifa sighed loud enough for Aerith to hear two desks from where she's standing.

After a few awkward seconds, Aerith decided to ask.

"… Tifa?" Aerith tapped her back, and she turned her head. "Uh… um…"

Tifa scrunched her forehead. "Well, uh…" Aerith couldn't find the right words – she was deadly curious about her connection with Cloud (certainly after seeing her chasing after him), but it seemed rude to ask her something like that. Instead, she took out a yellow sheet to quickly change the awkward moment.

"What's your next class?" Aerith said, and Tifa let out a small smile.

"Why didn't you just immediately ask?" she rummaged her bag. "Uh, I have Business Studies. You?" Aerith's heart sank when she understood that they weren't in the same class.

"Biology." Tifa mouthed an 'o' at her mouth, clearly getting Aerith's dilemma.

"Don't worry – I'll take you to your Biology class before I drop off to Business Studies." she scrambled out of the classroom. Aerith became wide-eyed and quickly shook her head.

"NO! No need," Aerith said hastily, "You'll be late for your own class." She stopped Tifa in her tracks outside their History classroom. She could see students walking about the hallways, trying to get to their class on time.

"No, it's really okay," Tifa insisted. She tried to walk, but Aerith grabbed her hand.

"I'll be fine. Just tell me the directions to the classroom, and I, hopefully, will reach there safely." Aerith forced a grin. In truth, she wanted Tifa to lead her there – Aerith's hopeless at directions, unless she's passed the way many times – but she didn't want to burden her. Especially on her first day, and they just met.

Tifa looked uncertain. "Are you sure? You might get lost." Aerith shook her head once more. Tifa still hesitated, but then she gave in and sighed deeply after seeing the brunette so determined.

"Okay then. Your Biology class is two turns from here. You copy? Two." Aerith nodded. "After you make those two turns, you go downstairs, and head to your right. On the left side of the hallway, there are 5 doors." Tifa put her index finger on her chin as she tried to remember. "Then, you-"There was a loud voice in the distance, which rendered Aerith unable to hear the last few words Tifa was saying. She could hear again after a "Do you get it?" from Tifa. Looking at the watch on her hand, Aerith knew there was no longer any time for her to chat and idle around; so she decided to nod. Tifa smiled. "Don't get lost, okay? I'll never forgive myself if you do." Aerith grinned at her, and nodded once more. Tifa started to dash past her. "I'll see you at break time!" Aerith waved at her in the distance, as she did the same.

That finished, Aerith took a deep breath, and started walking. _Maybe I'll get lucky,_ she thought as she took a turn. Glancing around, the hallways were beginning to empty as the students went into their classes. She broke into a run, taking another turn, and frantically looked for stairs. When she found it, she dashed down, nearly knocking a teacher; Aerith yelled sorry before turning to her right. Looking at the left side of the hallway, there really were 5 doors. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let her hand point to one of them.

Her index finger rested on the second door. "Alright," She said as she clenched her fists. Aerith reached her hand for the half-open doorknob. But, before she could even touch it, someone's hand gripped her wrists, not allowing her to open the entrance.

"It's not this classroom." She turned, and Zack Fair was looking straight into her eyes. Aerith jumped back in response, but her hand was still in his grip. She blushed almost immediately.

"If you're going to Biology, it's the fifth classroom over there." He pointed at the door farthest from the stairs. Aerith craned her neck to see over Zack's shoulder, to get a better view to which door he was indicating. She noticed his muscular build, and somehow, her blush worsened. She looked to the floor, embarrassed. Zack's eyes were on her now, she could feel.

"T-t-t-thank you," Aerith said, self-consciously. She eyed her hand that was still in Zack's larger grip. "Um…" She indicated her hand.

Zack immediately released his hold. "Oh, sorry! Didn't mean that." Aerith felt the warmth leaving her arm. For some reason, she was disappointed; but she didn't show it. She looked at him, and their eyes met again – she almost was at a loss of words seeing those beautiful blue orbs, but she didn't let her emotions take over her mind.

"Uh… well, I should… um…" She pointed weakly at the door she was supposed to go.

"Yeah, _we _should." Zack grabbed hold of his bag that was sitting on the floor.

"W-wait, 'we'?" Aerith tilted her head in confusion.

"We're in the same class again." Zack smiled, and Aerith felt butterflies fluttering inside herself right that moment. His smile, along with his eyes – they were a perfect combination. She can now understand why he was so popular.

"O-oh." Was all she could muster.

Zack eyed Aerith again, and their eyes gazed at each others' just before Aerith snapped out of it and started dragging herself towards to classroom, blushing. "We should go." As she walked, she heard his footsteps behind her. In a few strides, he was already ahead of her, and reached the doorknob before she did. She hastened her steps, as Zack opened the door. Both of them stepped inside.

Luckily, the teacher didn't arrive yet – Aerith sighed in relief – and so, she scanned the classroom lab. Most of the students were gazing at the handsome guy beside her, she noticed, as Zack looked for a place to sit. She finally noticed as to how tall he was; Aerith's head only barely reached his neck, and her body was so small compared to his. But, then again, Aerith's body is the smallest in her family.

She saw a waved hand coming from the middle of the class, and was so relieved to see Cissnei sitting there with an empty seat beside her. She quickly took that seat, shifting all thoughts of Zack aside, and dropped her bag on the floor. Aerith turned to her side, to see that her cousin was facing behind her seat, talking to Reno. She was genuinely surprised seeing him there.

"Aerith! How was your first lesson? Actually, scratch that, who's your homeroom teacher?" Cissnei said excitedly.

Aerith eyed her cousin. "Which is it that you want to ask?" She saw Zack stride past behind Cissnei and took a seat at the back again.

"Homeroom." Cissnei smiled goofily. "You weren't with me, that's why; I wanna know!"

The small brunette put an elbow on the table and rested her hand on her chin. "Mr Valentine's class." She realized that Cissnei suddenly paid attention to her, and Reno behind her as well. He leaned forward to hear the conversation properly.

"AWESOME." The redhead gave her a thumbs-up. "He's one of my favorite teachers."

"Mine too," Reno said suddenly. Aerith turned to see him with an unexplainable expression. "Oh, sorry. Forgot to introduce myself; the name's Reno." He held out a hand, and Aerith shook it. "We're in the same History class. You surely got our attention just an hour before." He guffawed remembering the memory. Aerith blushed.

"Wait, Reno, you know her? You're homeroom with me!" Cissnei tapped his desk.

"Course I do – our first lesson was History." Reno gave her a playful look. "I think Mr Gadwall saw that she was your cousin; now that I look at it, you two do, in some ways, look alike."

Aerith fiddled with her fingers, remembering the past hour. "You're both part of the Student Council, right?" both of them nodded, although she realized that Cissnei looked a bit apologetic. "I see now why you two are close."

The wavy-haired redhead sighed. "I'm sorry, Aerith, for not telling you beforehand. Me and Reno _are_ part of the Student Council, along with a few other people. But," Cissnei jumped, "Didn't you think that Reno's personality makes him impossible to be part of it? I mean, look at him." She looked at her friend with a smirk. Reno's face looked like he wanted to retort.

"Ah, yeah, at first I did think it was impossible… but Tifa told me that he's a special case." Aerith cracked a smile.

"Tifa? You've already made friends? That's great, Aerith!" Cissnei's grin was so big Aerith could count all her teeth. Reno slumped on his desk, hands crossed, apparently disappointed that his impression was like that.

"Humph, cousins really are alike…" He scowled. The two cousins laughed. Aerith wondered why it was so easy communicating with Reno; it was as easy when she first met Cissnei. _I wonder if it's a common trait between student council members?_

Soon afterwards, a student came rushing in the classroom. "Teacher's here! And, I think we're lucky this time! It isn't Professor Hojo." The whole class cheered at the announcement, not excluding Aerith's cousin, Reno, and Zack, from who she saw from the corner of her eye. She turned to Cissnei, with a puzzled look.

"Ah, right. I have a lot of explaining to do…" Cissnei scratched her head. "Professor Hojo is well known as a man of science in this school. More a scientist than a teacher… I'll let your imagination decide why we hate him so much." Aerith thought for a second, and got stumped.

"Rumor is, he does experiments with students," Reno said hauntingly. Aerith gapped at the spiky redhead. "It's scary, you don't want to think about it – at least one student in one of his classes goes missing every year. The teachers say that it's because they moved, but I don't think that's the case…"

Aerith shuddered. Cissnei pinched Reno's hand. "OW! What the heck, Cissnei!" he rubbed his hand, which was red with pain.

"Don't scare Aerith. It's just a rumor, anyways!" Cissnei gritted her teeth.

"Well then, why are you so happy that he's not our teacher for the year?"

Cissnei made wild gestures. "Because, when he teaches, my grades drop drastically!" Reno rolled his eyes. Aerith suppressed a laugh.

Quite suddenly, all the students who stood up took available seats. Aerith was puzzled by the abrupt change in the atmosphere, but then she realized that a teacher was standing in front of the classroom. She gasped.

A female teacher walked past the blackboard, and she was beautiful; not in a way of what people would call Cissnei, gorgeous, but she looked like a gentle mother with a kind feature and aura around her. She looked quite young, probably in her early or mid-twenties, and her long brown hair tied behind her head, covered by a long white – or was it light yellow? – thread. She wore a lab coat over her aquamarine blouse and dark skirt. Her heels made mule sounds as she approached the front of the class. Aerith could hear hushed whistling noises from behind, possibly from the male students, directed towards the woman.

She put her files on her desk, and introduced herself. "Welcome, class," she said as she gently smiled. It seemed to have beamed throughout the classroom. "I'll be your Biology teacher for the year. In case if there are any new students, my name is Ms Lucrecia Crescent. You may call me Ms Crescent." She wrote her name on the blackboard – Aerith silently thought that she was glad to not be the only one with a rather weird name. Not that this teacher's name was anything beyond ordinary, just that hearing Lucrecia alone showed that this teacher surely wasn't from around here.

Ms Crescent observed the class, and her eyes met Aerith's; she smiled gently at her, which made the small brunette blush. The way she looks at her, and even the way she smiles – it reminded Aerith of her mother, even more so than Miss Alde. A small pang in her heart quickly replaced her blush when she thought of her mother.

"She's looking at you, Aerith," Cissnei nudged and whispered. The pang in her heart subsided.

Aerith mouthed an "I know!" while cracking a smile. She saw Reno from the corner of her eye slumping against his desk; Zack, on the other hand, was looking back and forth between Ms Crescent and herself. Or, at least, that's what the braided brunette thought.

"So," Ms Crescent started, "I presume you all have your textbooks from last year?" The whole class chorused a yes simultaneously, excluding Aerith and Reno, much to her amusement. Reno poked Aerith and made a pleading gesture, as if not to tell her that he lost his textbook. The small brunette almost laughed seeing the redhead so desperate.

"Ehem." Reno suddenly straightened himself at his seat, as the teacher approached him. "I am assuming you are a new student." Ms Crescent wasn't gesturing at Aerith, but rather at Reno. The whole class laughed.

"Uh… sorry, Miss?" Reno gave her a cheeky grin. Ms Crescent crossed her hands.

"Well then, I guess you and this lovely lady here-"she tilted her head at Aerith's direction, "-should go to the library and get new ones. I'm fresh out." She finally turned to Aerith. "And what is your name, young one?"

Aerith was struck by the sudden formality, and stammered, "A-Aerith. Aerith Gainsborough."

"Gainsborough?" Ms Crescent looked a bit shocked, but quickly hid it. "Well then, Aerith, I guess you should accompany Reno here and get a good textbook. Make sure he takes a badly-used one, for he might lose it in the future." The whole class laughed once more, Ms Crescent joining in. "Reno, will you gladly?"

The redhead stood up, a scowl on his face. "C'mon, Aerith." He strode towards the door, and Aerith rushed from her seat to catch up with him after bowing slightly to Ms Crescent. She saw Cissnei mouth something between the lines of "good luck" or "be careful". The small brunette peered at her before running after Reno.

Because he was walking so fast, Aerith accidentally yelled his name for him to slow down. She quickly clasped her mouth. The whole class shifted into whispers, leaving her blushing but she ran out the door behind him and shut it.

Reno was standing beside the door, arms crossed and back leaning on the wall. He still looked pissed off, but was amused enough to tease Aerith. "So, that's settled; we're friends now. You called out my name back there like all my other friends do." He gave her a sly grin, to which she responded with a small frown.

"I'm glad to be friends with you, Reno, but back there was an accident… sorry for calling out your name so suddenly like that." Aerith looked at the floor.

"Nah, it's okay. I don't mind. That means I've gained a new friend." He ruffled Aerith's hair playfully before marching through the corridor behind her. "But, friends don't give friends bad books, 'kay?" She laughed at his statement, before the two walked beside each other towards the library.

_A/N: RENO! -smiles like an idiot-  
and what's an FFVII fanfic without our favorite hero, Cloud?_


	4. A Lot of Getting Used To

_A/N: btw, for future reference, you guys might want to look at this page for the student council members. And yes, they're based on the Turks. Good luck on guessing which one's which! I'm planning to show more of them in the future._

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"Oh my goodness."

Aerith was now standing in what Reno called a library – however, her first impression of it was that the shelves were _massive_. The ceiling was incredibly tall, probably enough to fit a two-story house, and there were rows and rows of bookshelves that almost touched the roof, if not for the space for lamps. In the middle of the library sat clusters of chairs. Near the window, there were the stairs and a long, long desk for computers; some were already occupied. Despite it being lesson hours, there are some students loitering about trying to find a book.

"Great, isn't it?" Reno questioned.

"'Great' is an understatement," Aerith answered him, "This place is _incredible_." Reno only chuckled hearing the wonder in her voice.

"You can admire it throughout break – we've got a Biology book to hunt." He scrambled towards the librarian behind her desk near the double-door entrance to the library. She looked like a strict woman with a stout body and glasses, and with dark blonde hair; just how Aerith have imagined others like her. Reno placed an elbow on the high counter and said, "Miss, do you happen to have two Biology books for second-years?"

The librarian fixed her glasses upon him. "_Again_, Reno? I was expecting you to be a bit more responsible with our books after you joined the Student Council… but oh well. I'm not expecting you in third lesson, do I make myself clear?" She stood up and walked out her counter, standing between Reno and Aerith. "Now, Biology books for both of you?" Aerith nodded.

Her glasses fixed on the small brunette. "Hm… a new student! You're finally doing something productive in this school." She smiled towards Reno, and walked towards a row, gesturing the two to follow her.

"You're certainly popular," remarked Aerith, as they strode through the series of shelves.

"Shut up. I need to have a reputation, right?" Reno hushed into a whisper. The brunette raised an eyebrow. "Just joking. I may be a troublemaker in junior high, but now I'm in high school and I want to change that."

Aerith scoffed. "You certainly aren't doing a good job at that." When she finished her sentence, she was awestruck on how easy it was to talk to Reno, a person she just properly knew a few minutes ago.

"Hey, at least they know that I'm not what I seem to be. Even delinquents can be smart."

The two followed the teacher to a stack of neatly arranged boxes at a section named 'textbooks'. She went through one of them, and emerged pulling out brand-new Biology books and handed them each to Aerith and Reno.

"Thank you, Miss-"

"Wendy. Call me Miss Wendy." She grinned towards Aerith.

"Um… okay then." The brunette smiled sheepishly. Miss Wendy then turned her attention to Reno.

"Don't you dare lose these, okay? I trust you," she said as she patted her chest.

Reno smirked. Aerith had the feeling that he'll lose it before they even reached last lesson.

The two thanked Miss Wendy and marched out of the library, walking through the halls of Finale Academy. Once again, Aerith cannot believe that she actually goes to school in this incredible place – she's never had the opportunity before to even go to a proper school. She looked at each passing classroom and locker in wonder, not realizing that they were walking in silence. Seeing the rows and rows of lockers made her realize something.

"Um, Reno?" Aerith said, as she poked his shirt.

"What?"

"These lockers… there's one for each student, right?"

"Yep." Reno nodded, hanging his book on his head.

"That means, shouldn't there be one for me?"

Both of them stopped, and Reno looked at her while raising an eyebrow so high that Aerith herself was surprised.

"If I remember correctly," He scratched his hair, "You're in Mr Valentine's class." Aerith jiggled her head. "Then that means your locker should be near his class." She formed an 'o' at her mouth, understanding what he was saying. Reno looked unsure. "Do you really get it?"

"… Yes?" this time, it was her turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Weird, before you mentioned Tifa's name. That made me guess that you two are close already, and that she has by now shown you a locker." Reno started to walk again, Aerith following suit. "It's common here to show the new kid their locker before moving on to anything else. What the heck is Tifa Lockhart thinking?"

Aerith shook her head. "We're not that close yet, even though I sat beside her in History. She probably thought I knew how it works here?"

Reno glanced at her. "Surely you've lived in Sector 8 all your life, right? What about your junior high school? It should be the same way."

Aerith shut her mouth. If she didn't want to tell Tifa where she came from, then she surely doesn't want to tell Reno. Different people have different views as to what is really happening under the plate, and she's not sticking around trying to find out what each of her new friends has to say to that.

"I'm… not from Sector 8."

"Ah, that would explain it then." Much to Aerith's relief, Reno no longer pursued the subject. "We should seriously hurry back – Ms Crescent will have _my _head if _we_ don't." She laughed at his emphasis.

A few seconds later, they arrived at their Biology class door. Aerith saw that they were clustered into groups of threes and fours, each having a certain apparatus on their tables. All students wore lab coats now; similar to the one Ms Crescent was wearing. She herself was standing over a group that was testing something of a solution with bread; Aerith saw Zack at the mentioned group. Ms Crescent clapped her hands at their arrival.

"Oh, that was fast. Looks like they've finally come to their senses and organized the library." Ms Crescent walked gracefully towards them. "We're experimenting with bread and the yeast inside it." Reno nodded; Aerith was unsure how to react. "So, Reno and Aerith, I prefer you two go choose a group and work with them. Aerith, I'm pretty sure you'd like to work with your cousin." Ms Crescent pointed at the far-end table; Cissnei was waving at her. The small brunette raised an eyebrow as a question formed in her head.

"Um, Miss…?" Aerith asked Ms Crescent.

"Yes?"

"How did you know that I was Cissnei's cousin?"

She felt every student's eyes on her now – probably going back and forth between her and Cissnei – and she heard some gasp and whisper. _Is Cissnei really that popular?_ Aerith scrunched her forehead, looking to the floor, after realizing the effect of her question. Ms Crescent, however, seems undisturbed.

"I kinda guessed." She winked. Aerith cracked a small smile seeing it. Probably, after hearing the response, the class no longer gazed upon her, much to her relief.

Reno scratched his forehead. "Miss, where do I go?" he toggled the book he was holding.

"Hmm…" Ms Crescent scanned the class. "To wherever you see fit." Reno raised an eyebrow. He looked troubled as he scanned the class.

"Ah! Um…" Aerith started to say. Both the teacher and the redhead looked at her. "If you want, just come with me and Cissnei." She held her Biology book tight to her chest. To her surprise, Reno laughed, loud enough for the class to once again turn their way. Even Ms Crescent cracked a grin.

"Okay then, kiddo," Reno said as he ruffled Aerith's hair. He then passed her to walk towards Cissnei's table. Somehow, Aerith felt at ease – Reno can be a really good friend to her in this school. It's easy to communicate with him.

When she turned to follow Reno to Cissnei's table, she accidentally glanced at Zack's table – who, to her surprise, was glaring at her. Her shoulders stiffened at the sudden eye contact. He looked almost… angry? But why?

Since Zack didn't break their contact, Aerith scurried over to Cissnei, looking away. She could still feel his eyes on her back. She shuddered.

"Are you okay, Aerith? You look pale." Cissnei leaned forward to observe her face.

"I-I-I'm fine." The small brunette rested her book on the table. Reno, who also leaned forward to observe, backed away after hearing her response. He turned to the other two people also at the table – both of them had black hair, one girl and one guy. They looked very professional, but Aerith can't pinpoint why. Their presence made her forget about Zack's previous glare.

The girl waved at her. "Hey." The guy, however, looked more composed and only glanced and nodded her way. He then continued to observe the apparatus sitting on the table.

"Forgive him, he's shy," Cissnei remarked jokingly. The guy glared at her, but she seemed to not care.

The girl held out her hand. "I'm also part of the student council. My name's Navi." She gestured towards the guy. "He's my brother, Tristan."

Aerith shook her hand. Navi looked like a very mature person, different from Cissnei and Reno. Being in her presence almost makes the world a different place. Just as she observed her, Tristan took off his lab goggles and put on glasses.

"Tristan." Aerith saw that he had a jagged scar slashed through his cheek. They nodded towards each other in greeting. "I'm the same as her." He tilted his head towards Navi.

The small brunette continued to observe the two new people she had just encountered, and it struck her – they almost look nothing alike, despite being siblings and in the same year.

"They're not identical twins, if you're wondering." Cissnei answered her confused look.

"How do you do that?" Aerith eyed Cissnei in disbelief.

"Do what?" the redhead winked. Aerith's right eye twitched, but she decided to let go of the matter that her cousin can read her mind.

During the next hour, Aerith and the Student Council gang worked in their group and continued to observe the experiment, after the redhead and brunette got their lab coats. She saw that Cissnei was getting along just fine with Navi, and, to her surprise, Tristan as well – who only talked when need be. Aerith may have gotten along well with Reno, but she found it hard to communicate with the other two. Navi does talk to her once in a while, but Tristan does not say a word. She was glad to have Cissnei and Reno, who knew them like the palm of their hand, by her side. She also realized that all four were extremely diligent in class – she learned a lot from them. _No wonder they're Student Council_, Aerith thought.

She also found out that Tristan is in homeroom with her.

"He's just shy," Cissnei laughed. She noticed Tristan's glare again, but her cousin continued on, "He doesn't get along well with other people, other than the Student Council. It's weird, but probably, to him, it's normal. Don't get put off if you can't talk to him." Cissnei continued to clean the test tube in her hand (the experiment has finished) while Aerith copied her notes on the bread and yeast concentration – or something like that. She found out that coping with Biology class is much harder than History. Aerith scowled. She could hear Cissnei still arguing with Navi about Tristan, Navi clearly pointing out that she shouldn't treat her brother that way.

"Cissnei." Aerith jumped at Tristan's sudden voice. "Will you cut it out?" He fixed his glasses on the tall brunette. Cissnei rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"But it's true. You should be more talkative. It's not my fault if you can't do well in society to save your life!"

Aerith saw him curl his fists. She became wide-eyed with shock. "Well, I don't have _certain _problems just because I can't seem to shut my mouth."

Cissnei looked like she had just been stabbed. "Have it your way then! At least I didn't become a shut-in after being bullied." She slammed her hand on her notebook – the one Aerith was copying. Tristan threw daggers at her. She heard Navi whimper; and Aerith was dangerously close to the both of them.

"Better than being a spoiled brat." Hearing this, Cissnei was close to slapping Tristan, but Reno in a swift movement caught her hand mid-air and stopped Tristan's fist flying towards Cissnei. Navi, at the same time, pulled Aerith back from the scene. The small brunette hugged her Biology book in shock.

"You two need a time-out!" Reno yelled out. The whole class turned their way, some wide-eyed with fright after realizing the source of noise. Ms Crescent strode their way, aware of the commotion.

"What is going on here!?" Ms Crescent looked worried and furious at the same time. That was the first time Aerith has heard a teacher raise her voice.

Tristan was the first to lower his hand. Yanking it out of Reno's grasp, he said, "Nothing." He gritted his teeth, and stomped towards Navi and Aerith. Cissnei struggled from Reno to charge after him, but the redhead kept her put. Ms Crescent tapped her heels in annoyance.

"Tristan, Cissnei. Both of you come with me after class." Said people uttered a simultaneous "WHAT?" but then each shut their mouth. Tristan turned away from Ms Crescent, and his eyes met Aerith's – it was such a deadly glare that the small brunette jumped back in fear. She felt that she hit someone as she jumped, and turned to see Zack grabbing her shoulders. She blushed furiously in shock, and her head faced down onto the floor in embarrassment. To her surprise, Zack didn't let go of his hold; it only made her heart ram harder against her ribcage.

After what Aerith thought was forever, the bell rang, indicating break time. Zack released his grip without a word and strode back to his seat, and took his bag; Aerith looked at his back and dazed before she walked to take her own bag. Tristan strode to Ms Crescent's desk, and Reno released his hand from Cissnei's as she yanked her bag off her chair and walked silently behind Tristan, her face serious. Ms Crescent stood in front of the whiteboard.

"I'll see everyone next lesson! Be sure to have the notes on the board written down. We'll discuss it next time." Ms Crescent then stopped by her desk, where Tristan and Cissnei now stand. She muttered inaudible words before Reno and Navi gestured Aerith to follow them. Tristan's face was utterly unexplainable – Cissnei, on the other hand, crossed her arms and looked to the floor, seemingly repenting. Aerith had the urge to comfort her, but she decided to leave Cissnei with her problems. She'd probably be a burden to her cousin, anyway.

She followed Reno and Navi outside the classroom, and all three walked towards the yard. None said a word; apparently all three were still appalled for various reasons, but Aerith has a lot more to think about than just the fight.

One of them was: why didn't Zack let go of her?


	5. Zack Fair

Reno and Navi, being Student Council, has to have their breaks within their 'HQ' (as what Reno called it); so Aerith was left alone in the yard, sitting on a bench. She saw students going in and out of the cafeteria, bringing trays of food to either sit outside or on the tables inside. She didn't see anyone she knew, nor did she have any money to buy food, so she decided to let her mind wander around.

The brunette leaned back against the bench, so much that her neck craned facing the sky. It was a clear afternoon, the sun's shining brightly, and the clouds are moving in a pace that can make you sleepy. Aerith closed her eyes in content, thinking about the previous hour, before her eyes snapped open in realization.

Her shoulders still felt warm, despite the pretty cool breeze blowing in.

Aerith tried to remember the exact scene of it; Tristan glared at her, she jumped back, only to find out she had hit Zack from behind. And, not to mention that he grabbed her shoulders to prevent her from backing even further; the catch is, he didn't let go as soon as he gripped.

She abruptly backed down from the bench and, if one was to see from afar, now hugging her knees in a rather awkward way. Her face was as red as burning coal. She could feel steam coming out from her ears at the thought.

_What the heck are you thinking, Aerith? You barely know him!_ She mentally wanted to slap herself at the fact she feels so attached to someone she barely knows. _I wonder if this is what they call love at first sight…_ Aerith sighed and arched her back forwards, elbows on her knees. She buried her forehead in her right palm, trying hard not to think about Zack Fair's beautiful bluish eyes.

A song of laughter had Aerith raise her head – it was Zack and his SOLDIER gang. They were sitting around the fountain once more, only a few meters to her right, clustered by a group of people, majorly girls. Genesis was the center of attention again. She was quite surprised seeing Cloud sitting beside Zack, but he seemed to exclude himself from the lively group, since he only crossed his hands and closed his eyes; quite a huge contrast to Zack beside him who was chatting happily with his friends.

Seeing the popular Zack like this made Aerith feel stupid. It's not such a big deal for her to get interested in him, since he's one of the most popular guys at school. She guessed it was because of his striking good looks, but the weird thing is that isn't what attracted _her_ to him – it was his eyes. Not to mention his kind demeanor he showed Aerith not long ago, when she was about to enter an entirely different class and humiliate herself at her first day of school.

The thought struck Aerith like lightning – how did Zack know she had Biology in the first place? Is it possible that he's… been watching her? Looking out for her? Or possibly just eavesdropped on her conversation with Tifa?

Aerith decided to try and believe in the last choice, although, deep in her heart, she wished otherwise.

Looking around, she tried finding someone she knew – excluding the 4 existing members of the Student Council that she knew ("make that three," she thought, remembering Tristan) – but the yard was quite crowded with students it was hard for her to get a glimpse of familiar black-haired girls.

Just as she started to stand up and try to search for them, someone nudged her gently from the back. Aerith turned, and was overly relieved to see Yuffie and Tifa standing behind the bench she was previously sitting on. Her shoulders relaxed at the sight of them smiling at her.

"Yuffie, Tifa," Aerith sighed, "I'm so glad I found you guys."

"Correction: we were the ones that found you." Yuffie crossed her arms while grinning. "We had Business Studies and were in the same class. Tifa told me you had Biology, so we hurried to this part of the school to find you."

Tifa walked towards the bench, sat on it, and took out a sandwich from her bag. She tossed one to Yuffie, and handed another to Aerith. "How was your Biology lesson? I hope you didn't have… um…"

Aerith nodded, clearly understanding Tifa's question. "I didn't have Professor Hojo. I had Ms Crescent instead." Yuffie slumped on the other end of the bench, munching her sandwich, and gestured Aerith to sit between them. She did so, and continued, "She's very nice. She reminds me of my mother." The small brunette felt a wrench in her heart at the thought of her mother; she did not show it, however, and decided to try and brush it off by eating her newly-acquired sandwich. To her surprise, it was tasty.

"Ms Crescent does have that effect on people," Tifa remarked. "But, what are the odds; you having both Mr Valentine and Ms Crescent on the same day." Aerith raised an eyebrow, and Yuffie immediately cut in.

"They're rumored to be engaged!" the short black-haired youth whacked her fist into thin air. The small brunette widened her eyes at the news.

"That's great! But, don't they both look too young to get married?" Aerith tilted her head in confusion.

"Young? They're both almost 30," Tifa said as she took a bite from her sandwich.

"… Really? They certainly don't look the part."

"Ms Crescent and Mr Valentine _are_ popular because of their appearance. Not only that, both are excellent teachers. It's normal for new students to assume they're not that much older than us."

Aerith found it easier to chew now – her appetite was showing. "They're interesting teachers."

"You bet!" Yuffie lowered her fist. "You'll enjoy both their classes, trust me. Us, on the other hand… we might get Professor Hojo, since you have Ms Crescent." She sighed in disappointment. Tifa looked equally regretful. Aerith decided not to say a word, still having traumatic thoughts about Reno's remark about the teacher. The three nibbled their sandwiches in silence. Time slowly dragged by in awkward silence.

Aerith, having a sudden urge and impulse to know, blurted out, "How much do you two know about Zack Fair?"

This question seemed to have shocked the hell out of the two black-haired girls – both stared wide-eyed at her and Yuffie almost dropped her sandwich.

"… If I may ask, why so sudden…?" Tifa fully turned her hourglass body facing the brunette to her right; Yuffie, at the same time, leaned in closer from Aerith's left. From afar, it might look like the two were interrogating her for a heinous crime.

"W-W-W-Well, I… uh…" Aerith blushed. She was stammering for no real reason now. "I-I-I just w-wanted to k-know. H-He… uh…"

Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "Out of _all_ the SOLDIER members, _Zack Fair _is the one you're attracted to. This could be a headline." Tifa laughed at her sarcasm (or at least, Aerith thought it was).

"W-W-Why?"

"Most people get attracted to either Sephiroth or Genesis first, since they're the ones who stand out the most, if you've noticed." Tifa munched her sandwich more frequently now. "Zack, Angeal, and the others… not so much. They're the type you notice after you get to know the gang; not that they're also ridiculously handsome themselves."

Before the brunette realized it, Tifa finished her sandwich and threw her plastic wrap in the bin around 2 meters to their left with a perfect arc. She took out grape juice from her bag and drank it, still eyeing Aerith in the process.

"Wait, before we explain SOLDIER fully, tell us why you're interested in Zack." Yuffie was eating her bread like crazy now, showing her eagerness.

"Uh…" Aerith tried to find the words. "I almost got lost going to Biology today, and he… well, he saved me from going into the wrong classroom." The small brunette blushed at the memory. Her shoulders felt warm once more, surprisingly.

"WHAT?? You almost got lost??" Tifa slapped her forehead. "Oh, Aerith… I'm so sorry."

Aerith shook her head. "No, it was just the classroom. The rest of the part, I made it safely." Seeing Tifa relaxed made her a bit relieved.

"Hm?" Yuffie put her index finger on her chin. "Tifa told me in Business she told you the directions after she knew you had Biology next." The lively girl gulped her sandwich. "Question is, how did _he_ know?"

Aerith sighed. "I'd like to know that myself." She glanced at the direction of the fountain; Zack's now eating a sandwich similar to what the trio was eating.

"Don't tell me," Tifa straightened up, "He eavesdropped."

"Possibly."

Yuffie shook her head. "NO NO NO! Zack's not an eavesdropper; he's anything but a sneaker. I've known him briefly when we were smaller, and he isn't that kind of guy." Aerith wanted to ask her about her childhood, but repressed the urge and instead took a bite out of her sandwich. "And besides; even if he did eavesdrop, why would he go as far as helping Aerith specifically afterwards?"

"Then how can you explain how he knew about it?" the brunette was still munching.

"It's… fairly possible… that he's been watching you." She choked her sandwich on Tifa's words.

"EH? STALKER?" Yuffie's face was grave now. Tifa scrunched her forehead in irritation.

"No! Probably more of the caring type." The long-haired girl hit the other's head.

Aerith let the words sink in. _Helping… watching… caring… gripping?_ The last one made her blush. To her relief, the other two doesn't seem to have realized it yet, since they're still bickering.

"Why would Zack care about someone he barely knows? He's probably never talked to Aerith yet!" Yuffie rubbed her head, where Tifa landed a hit on. "Zack's a nice guy, and we're both on relatively good terms with him, but I don't think he's the type of person to help a complete stranger to him unless necessary." Her words turned Aerith's blush into a frown; frankly, it made Tifa do the same.

"… Yuffie, your words sometimes can be quite stabbing." Tifa slurped her grape juice. "So you're saying, he helped Aerith out of pity? Or probably fame?"

The short-haired girl looked taken aback. "Uh… no…"

Tifa flinged the remnants of her grape juice into the bin behind her, without even looking. "Then don't assume Zack did this just because he felt sorry for the new girl." Aerith finished her sandwich by the time Tifa finished her sentence. The brunette looked down at Yuffie's words.

Yuffie took note of this, apparently. "… Sorry, Aerith." She munched her sandwich until it finished. "I sometimes talk without thinking. It's a bad habit of mine."

The brunette shook her head. "It's okay. I don't have any hopes for Zack, anyway." She pointed at the direction of the fountain. "I mean, look at him. Is he someone I can just ask casually about this kind of thing?"

All three are now observing SOLDIER, who seemed to be having the time of their lives. Tifa nodded grimly – Aerith was unsure whether she saw the blond sitting beside Zack.

"You're right. But," Tifa said as Yuffie took hers and Aerith's sandwich wrap to the trash, "That still doesn't explain his unusual behavior for you." Aerith's cheeks turned a peach pink at her words. Both black-haired girls smiled at her sudden change in expression.

"Putting that aside!" Yuffie exclaimed as she rummaged her bag, "What do you guys have next?"

Aerith and Tifa looked as if they have realized something important, and both took out their respective yellow sheets. They uttered simultaneously, "English."

Yuffie jumped up and down. "YEAH! We're all in the same class again." Her cheeky grin flashed to her friends. "Zack might be in the same class… fufufufu…" Aerith blushed, while Tifa rolled her eyes, laughing.

Just as they were finished discussing the matter, the bell rang, indicating third lesson. All three stood up and Aerith followed the other two to their English class – as they did, however, the brunette saw Cissnei from afar talking to two people she did not recognize. One was arguably a first-year – she was the smallest, with short blonde hair and brown eyes – and another looked like a third-year, for he looked the part, with long black hair tied behind him. Cissnei was conversing rather comfortably with them, making Aerith concluding that they're part of the Student Council. To her surprise, Reno, Navi nor Tristan was anywhere to be seen near the trio.

Moreover, the fact that she seems to have seen the male somewhere doesn't make it unanimous.

Now that Aerith, Yuffie and Tifa are marching towards the English class, Aerith noticed something quite familiar with the atmosphere: it was the same way where she and Reno went to get their Biology books. She became relieved by the fact that she knows the way to _one_ of her classes in this school (Biology doesn't count, since she needs to know where her History class is first).

Tifa opened a door in the same hallway near the double-door entrance to the library. The inside was like a normal classroom, except for the fact that it's surrounded by bookshelves. Students were crowding to their respective group of friends, as the trio tried to find a place to sit. Eventually they settled near the window once more, Aerith sitting beside Yuffie and behind Tifa.

"Hey," Yuffie nudged her, "You've been with Zack in all of your classes so far, right?" Aerith nodded.

"Well then, it must be fate." Tifa gestured behind them. "He's sitting right there."

Aerith spun around, and yet there he was; sitting in the back, this time not near the window, chatting with his friends. She became wide-eyed at the coincidence, and abruptly faced the front with a blush. Yuffie and Tifa snickered at her behavior.

"Stop it, guys," Aerith warned. "We have nothing between us. We barely know each other."

"Uh-huh. Then why'd you ask about him in break?" Tifa raised an eyebrow.

"I-I just wanted to know! He helped me and all. Is it bad wanting to know more about the person who saved you from utter humiliation?" both girls laughed freely now, unable to contain their snickering. Aerith scowled.

"Oookay. We're sorry. Just that, you're probably the only one in this school who… _got interested in him at first sight_." Yuffie covered her mouth in laughter.

"Other than that, you look so cute when you blush." Tifa winked at her. "You blush as if it's a part of your life."

Aerith shook her head. "I never blush this much before." She quickly covered her mouth, after Yuffie and Tifa's jaws dropped in realization. She wanted to slap herself, knowing that the words she just said would cause utter chaos.

"AHA!" Yuffie stood from her seat, grinning at Aerith. At that, the whole class stared at her, including the teacher who just came in with a raised eyebrow. Aerith and Tifa slapped their foreheads in exasperation.

"Yuffie Kisaragi," The teacher said, "Sit down."

She did so, while uttering sheepishly, "Yes, Mr Sullivan." She ducked her head in embarrassment. Tifa faced the front now.

"Well, that was a good way to start the lesson…" He made a face towards Yuffie. The black-haired girl bent her head, making a mock frown. Aerith tried hard not to laugh at her expression. "My name is Andrew Sullivan, and I shall be your English teacher for this year." He wrote his name on the board, and the lesson started.

Aerith found the lesson quite intriguing; the teacher was quick at explaining. He also introduced them a famous play – LOVELESS. Most of the girls in the class enjoyed this play, she could tell, because they participated in class discussion more frequently after Mr Sullivan mentioned it. The small brunette found the poem very interesting, although she did see Yuffie for a brief moment rolling her eyes when a student delivered a verse while grinning so broadly.

"When the war of the beasts bring about the world's end, the Goddess descends from the sky," Tifa recited the prologue, "Wings of light and dark spread afar, She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting." She sat down shortly after she finished, with Mr Sullivan nodding at her. Aerith pondered with the meaning.

Before Mr Sullivan could explain the verse, the bell rang, indicating fourth lesson. "Okay, class, we'll discuss this next time. Oh, for homework, read the poem and think of what it is trying to tell us." Some guys groaned, but the girls seemed to have no problem with it. "Keep the books and read them at home."

In the hallway, Tifa and Yuffie were having a heated discussion.

"LOVELESS is a really good play, Yuffie. You should read it fully once in a while," Tifa argued, while taking out her yellow sheet.

"I have a problem with it! I don't understand it at all," Yuffie retorted, "It's full of those… those… _poetic stuff_. Yeah." She, like Tifa, took out her sheet. Aerith, in turn, also examined her paper.

"I have Math next." Tifa shoved her paper back inside her bag. "What about you guys?"

"I… have Geography." Aerith eyed hers. Yuffie sighed.

"History. Looks like all three of us are not in the same class," Yuffie said. Tifa looked worried, and glanced at the two girls. Aerith scrunched her forehead.

"What's wrong, Tifa?" The small brunette tugged on her sleeve. Yuffie crumpled the paper in her pocket.

"I wish we could have someone to tell you the way." Yuffie formed an 'o' at her mouth in response to Tifa. Aerith rubbed her chin, trying to think of a solution. Tifa was right; she doesn't know the school fully yet to understand where the classes are. Yuffie looked equally disturbed while looking at her watch.

"We're gonna be late… looks like we'll just have to tell Aerith the way." Yuffie is jumping up and down now, while Tifa nodded reluctantly – she looked like she was still regretting her decision to leave Aerith during her Biology class.

Then someone grabbed Aerith's shoulder, stopping Yuffie's small jumping jacks, and Tifa spun. To the brunette's surprise, it was Zack, accompanied by Cloud. All three girls' jaw dropped at the sight of them.

"Zack?" Yuffie tilted her head in confusion. He waved at her, but did not let go of Aerith's shoulder. She briefly remembered the incident in Biology, and her face went pink. She saw Tifa shuffle uncomfortably.

"I'll just go to Math now." Tifa hurried off without saying goodbye to either of the four. Cloud glanced at her for a while, but then decided to turn the other cheek.

"Um…" Aerith eyed her shoulder. Zack took notice of it, and once again he released her without a word; just like last time. Yuffie pranced towards Aerith and Zack.

"Whatcha doin? Is there something you want to say to Aerith?" Yuffie gave a sinister grin towards Aerith, who blushed furiously. She tried to talk, but no words came out.

"Actually, I kinda… overheard your conversation, and heard that she," Zack gestured towards Aerith, "Had Geography next and had no guide. So, I was kinda thinking… I can probably lead you there." He looked into the brunette's eyes, and she found that she couldn't take her eyes off – those blue eyes were like penetrating into her very soul. Zack looked away towards Yuffie, and Aerith couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

Yuffie nodded. "Sure. But you have Geo next, Zack?" She tilted her head to Cloud. "And what about him?"

Zack sighed. "If I didn't, would I volunteer?" the small brunette's heart felt a small pang at his words. "Cloud's got Math, but it looks like Tifa ran off." Cloud moved forwards, towards the direction Tifa just went to, and nodded to the remaining three.

"Zack, I'll be off." He strode away, and soon out of sight. Zack sighed at his friend, but then raised an eyebrow towards Yuffie. Realizing it, she quickly looked at her watch, and scurried off.

"Aerith, see you later! Zack, take good care of her." Aerith found herself nodding furiously, while Yuffie zoomed through the hallway. She found that she was now alone with Zack, but still couldn't say a word. Apparently his eyes still had an effect on her.

"Well, we should go. Geography's this way." Zack walked a few steps in front of her, but stopped after realizing Aerith wasn't following him. She stood as still as stone. "C'mon, what are you waiting for?" Their eyes met again, but the brunette quickly looked down while blushing.

She managed to utter a sentence. "Why… are you suddenly doing this?"

Zack's footsteps rang clearly in her ear, as he sighed and bent down to be face to face with Aerith. She jolted in shock, and bounced back, trying not to look in his eyes. She heard him chuckle. "It wouldn't hurt to help someone, right?"

Aerith closed her eyes. "Someone you barely know?" She felt Zack straightening himself up again, and she tried hard not to meet his eyes. Instead, her eyes wandered to her fiddling fingers.

"… You're different." Zack scratched his head. Aerith looked up slowly, and he was glancing around, face a bit flushed. "You know what? We should really go now." He suddenly grabbed Aerith's wrist and dragged her across the hallway – she felt a few pairs of eyes on her as they strode towards their Geography class.

He let go in front of the door, and Aerith felt her wrists were warm. It was the same warmth she experienced in Biology. Zack's hand flew to his head. "Here we are." He reached to open the door.

Aerith tugged his sleeve. "Wait." He turned around, and their eyes met once more – even though her brain short-circuited, she did not look away this time. "… Thank you," She smiled shyly.

"No prob." Zack proceeded to the door, making Aerith let go of his shirt. He stopped when he held the doorknob, and spun facing Aerith. "… If possible, I'd like to know you better." She blushed at his statement, but while he rushed inside as soon as he said those words. She was glad he didn't see her face right now; it was probably as red as cooked lobster.

Aerith clasped her red face with her hands, not realizing she was smiling.


	6. The Student Council

_A/N: ugh, guys, sorry for the late update. I'm kinda busy with exams right now, so updates might take longer than usual.  
but I'm really happy for the people who liked, subscribed and reviewed to this story! that alone is my motivation to write this. XD I'll be sure to not disappoint you guys, and I'll try to not take it too slow with the romance..._

* * *

"A locker?" Tristan repeated her words.

"Y-yes," Aerith remarked.

It was now break, after Geography, and the bell just rang. The lesson, to Aerith, was pretty intriguing, but the teacher (Mr Harrison) was quite over-the-top and eccentric. Nonetheless, he was a good teacher. Good enough to make a seating plan of the class – no sarcasm intended – to which she sat right beside Tristan. She found it uncomfortable, especially since he's not very easy to talk to, but she had no other choice. He was the only one she knew in her class; other than Zack, of course, but she's in no position to ask him a favor since he sat in the back of the class due to the seating plan. Plus, she can't keep a straight face whenever he's near.

"Those Geography books are heavy, I can understand why you want one." Tristan stood up, fixing his glasses, and without a word gestured Aerith to follow him. She scuttled shortly after, keeping herself close to Tristan as she followed him out of class. She was careful to keep a distance between them, though.

Together they walked through the hallways and stairs, with Aerith trying to remember the way. There were times when Tristan stopped and talked to other people (mostly club leaders and teachers), but they did reach their destination. It was uncomfortable, for her, since Tristan did not address her and she rarely was the type of person who would start a conversation.

Tristan pointed to a locker, one nearer to the door of their homeroom. "That's yours, I presume."

Aerith only nodded, and walked towards it.

As she put her books in her locker, she noticed that it was fairly clean, compared to the others. She organized the books one by one, according to subject, and saved the top shelf for something else_. It might be better to leave that empty,_ she thought, because she doubts that she can reach books high up there without getting avalanched on. She took her time organizing the books.

After she finished, Aerith turned, and was surprised to see Tristan still standing there.

"Y-you were there the whole time?" She couldn't help but stammer. He just nodded. "O-oh."

He sighed. "Why do you always do that?"

"D-do what?"

"That. You keep stammering when you talk to me."

"T-that's because… um…" She tried to think of a good excuse, but failed.

Tristan gave a look at her. "Look, I'm sorry." He crossed his arms together.

"W-what?" she stammered. He raised an eyebrow at her. "I-I mean… what?"

"I glared at you in Biology because I was pissed off and you were the closest target."

Aerith blinked once. "Huh?"

"I tend to be explosive when I'm mad… but when I can't be and I _want_ to, I just try to suppress it. And, as a result, it was just as you saw it; I have to put it out on someone, and it had to be you. I'm sorry." Tristan fixed his glasses once more.

Aerith was too appalled to even answer him, but nonetheless she gave a small smile, indicating that she has forgiven him. Tristan saw this and nodded briskly, his lips twitching into what seemed to be a grin. "Thank you."

She nodded. "And, um… Cissnei's always very blunt, isn't she?" Aerith tried to drag the conversation. She wanted to know Tristan better, for some odd reason only God would know.

"Heck yes she is. But… she's a charming person. I'm glad to have a friend like her." As Tristan fixed his glasses, Aerith blinked at him once more. He took notice of this. "What?"

She shook her head. "No, no; I just thought that you weren't the type of person to speak your mind." She thought hard. "Because, um… you seem very self-centered. I thought you wouldn't care about anyone else but you." He laughed in response, which surprised Aerith because his laugh wasn't as brisk as she imagined.

"You're quite talkative, despite being the new kid." He steadied his bag hanging from his shoulder. "And yeah, I tend to do that. I'm sorry. I'm hard to communicate with."

"Then why are you talking at ease with me?"

He gave her a stare. "You look a bit like her."

"Who?"

Tristan kept silent for what seemed like minutes, and the finally said, "There are only 3 women whom I genuinely care about. First, is my mother; second is my twin Navi. Third, is… Cissnei."

Aerith was so surprised she banged the lockers behind her.

"HEY! What kind of reaction was that?" Tristan said brusquely, but she could find a tinge of pink in his cheek.

She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. After a while, she started smiling like an idiot.

"… Again, I must ask. What kind of reaction is that?" Tristan frowned and squinted at her.

She shook her head. "No, no! It's just nice to see that Cissnei has someone to be by her side, one that she can trust." Aerith chuckled, imagining how cute it would be when Cissnei found out someone she genuinely knows has a crush on her.

Tristan thought for a brief second, and answered her with raised eyebrows; "What about you? You're her cousin."

Aerith gulped. "I, uh… don't know her very well yet, despite us being close." Is it wise to assume that Tristan doesn't know that she had only met Cissnei two weeks ago?

"Oh, right." He fixed his glasses, as if he's missed an important point. "You just came here from the Sector 5 slums. That's normal."

Although Tristan stated it like it was very obvious, Aerith suddenly reacted fast and closed his mouth. "SSHHHH!" it was an involuntary reaction of hers, due to being so shocked that he actually knew her origins.

"mmph- HEY!" He brushed off her hand forcefully. "What the heck is your problem?"

She recoiled, realizing that she made him mad. "S-Sorry…" she slumped her shoulder in apology.

Tristan's voice sounded panicked afterwards. "Uh… no need to say sorry. Cissnei specifically told me you didn't want to be found out. My bad." He scratched his head.

Aerith stayed quiet for the rest of the break.

* * *

Math wasn't as bad as Aerith thought it would be, since Cissnei now sat beside her, happily solving problems from the textbook. She, too, solved problems along with her, but she only accepted 'yes' or 'no' questions from her cousin; to which, she would only shake or incline her head, no need for words. Aerith didn't know why she didn't want to talk. But for sure, she was still surprised about Tristan knowing her origins. She absolutely wanted to keep it a secret, until revealed at the right time…

Now she knew why Tristan was a bit cold towards her when they first met. He knew from the start. Of course, who would've known that a dirty, slum girl would suddenly live in the richest Sector in Midgar? He probably thought monsters roam under the plate. Aerith shuddered.

"Earth to Aerith," Cissnei tapped her shoulder. Aerith jumped, because she was so lost in thought she didn't hear anything going into her ears. "You know how to do this?" Cissnei handed her a question from the textbook.

The long-haired brunette stared at the textbook for a while, and then shrugged. Cissnei raised an eyebrow at her cousin.

"Aerith, are you okay? You haven't said a word."

She shook her head then forced a crooked smile. The redhead sighed.

"I expect an explanation back home, young lady." Cissnei returned to cramming in her textbook to answer questions, while Aerith tilted her head forward as if it was in shame. Truthfully, it was her who wanted answers, not her cousin. From where else would Tristan know Aerith's hometown?

There was a loud chair-moving sound from the back of the class (the cousins sat near to the front) which startled her from her thoughts once more. She spun around, and was surprised to see Zack standing there with his book in hand. Aerith thought why for a second, and then she realized that she was too absorbed in her thoughts to hear the teacher call out his name to answer the question on the board.

_I must be really out of it today,_ she silently thought. Slapping herself to her senses, she concentrated on her work.

Until Zack passed right beside her on his way to the front.

He accidentally brushed her shoulder with the tip of his fingers; it sent a tingling feeling down her spine, followed closely by a small, lingering warmth. She blushed almost instantly, and all her senses awoke. Aerith tried to shake off the feeling, to no avail. Instead, she crouched nearer to her textbook to hide her red face, and used all her will to look at the board and not the man who was writing on it now.

"Very good, Zack," Mr Gallian said. "Perfect, as usual." He gave his teacher a smile (one that Aerith didn't dare look at) and walked back the same path he came. This time, however, none of his skin touched hers, so she had time to calm down. Slowly putting her textbook on the desk, her heart rate gradually returned to the norm, allowing her to finish the work given.

When she calmed down, she scowled at herself. _Honestly, _she cursed, _get a grip._ Grudgingly scribbling answers in her book for her lack of control, she kept cursing herself for being head over heels for a guy she barely knows. Scribbling keeps Aerith's head off from Zack, as she herself has succeeded in finishing the class work faster than even Cissnei around 10 minutes left of the lesson. She smirked when she realized that her cousin was still pondering over the last question. Leaning her back against her chair, she stretched her arms to relieve the rest of the burden off her shoulders. It felt good.

Thankfully she learned math during her times in the slums, or else she would be stumped with this Trigonometry exercise that Mr Gallian gave them. It was pretty easy, since her old math teacher taught her what she needed to know. Her mother was also surprisingly good in math.

_Mom._ An old pang in her heart slowly and quietly resurfaced, as if to torture Aerith, at the thought of her mother once more. She thought she had forgotten that incident a month and a half ago, where she suddenly lost the only parent she had ever had – she never knew her father, and is an only child – during the time Aunt Naia found her in her own personal favorite place, the Church in the slums. At that time, she refused to leave the place she called home. But she knew, at that time, that she wouldn't survive alone under there. She had a bit of trouble finding food, even, despite that a lot of the vendors under there did give her for free. It wasn't a big community, so everyone knew each other. She hated to leave, she really did, but she knew if she didn't she would have possibly died under there. The pang in her heart hurt more. Oh, how she missed her mother's welcoming smile every time she went home… and her distinct scent of fresh leaves in the morning dew…

The sound of the bell awoke Aerith from her thoughts, along with Cissnei's curse that came out when she didn't finish her exercise during the lesson. Aerith could hear her say "great, more homework" that her cousin grumbled under her breath. Looking at her cousin, she was able to tolerate the lingering feeling in her heart, and giggled silently at the redhead sitting beside her.

Apparently Cissnei took notice of this. "What are you laughing about?" she snapped. "You haven't talked the whole lesson, and you finally open your mouth to laugh at me?" the redhead hit the brunette's forehead. Aerith winced in pain, although she was laughing. "C'mon then, let's go home." Cissnei grabbed her bag and walked indignantly towards the door, Aerith following suit. They stopped when Cissnei bumped into a boy's back at her way to the door, and in succession, Aerith bumped into hers.

"Oh, sorry," Cissnei muttered, and the boy turned. Aerith became wide-eyed; it was Cloud. Cissnei, when she realized this, did not seem affected, however.

"It's okay." The spiky blond uttered that with a bland expression, one that she can't pinpoint properly. Aerith could catch a glint of blue in his eyes, similar to another spiky-haired youth whose eyes she knew well.

After those words, Cloud walked away, outside the door. Cissnei sighed.

"Never could get what he thinks," she grumbled. She was still in a foul mood after not finishing her classwork. Aerith couldn't help but agree.

Both cousins walked out without talking, which was pretty unusual for Cissnei. Aerith still didn't feel like talking, especially after what Tristan said to her during break. _I'll ask Cissnei at home,_ she promised to herself. She doesn't want to risk talking about it at school.

Suddenly, someone patted Cissnei's shoulder. Both girls turned, and Aerith was surprised to see a blonde, small brown-eyed little girl whose smile was like the sun, directed towards her cousin. "Hey, Cissy!"

The redhead brightened up significantly after seeing her friend. "Elena! What are you doing here?"

"I had French in the other class, and then when I walked out I saw your bronze hair. Just thought I'd greet you – and of course, the famous cousin you talked about during first break." Elena turned to beam at Aerith, who gave her a small smile in return.

"Oh, right. Aerith, this is Elena Anderson. She's the newest and youngest member of the student council." Aerith shook Elena's hand that promptly came out as Cissnei said her name. "Elena, this is Aerith Gainsborough. Be nice to her." Elena gave her upperclassman a look of discontent, but then beamed at Aerith once more. The brunette felt a bit sheepish at her unnaturally accepting behavior.

The three walked through the hallways on the way to the yard, Elena asking Aerith various questions about herself. Cissnei sometimes would indulge in as well, occasionally asking Elena to take a breath between questions. All in all, Elena was a nice, cheerful girl.

"What's your favorite color?" Elena inquired after she asked about Aerith's preferences on shoes ("sneakers are the best," she said, and her cousin smirked at her Converses) as they reached the flower beds on the way to the school gate.

"Um… white, I guess?"

"Really?" Elena looked up and thought. "I think you're more of a pink person. Don't you agree, Cissy?"

The redhead shrugged. "Maybe brown suits her best."

Elena looked taken aback. "Why?"

"She likes tending to flowers; and every time she does, and finishes, her overalls become dirty and full of soil." Cissnei giggled at the thought. Aerith pouted at her cousin.

The small blonde turned to face Aerith again. "So you like tending to flowers?" Elena chuckled at the idea. "That's actually pretty cute. You don't see a lot of people with that hobby nowadays, especially with Mako reactors around the country." She pranced in front of the two, a ballet-like posture, and went ahead. As the blonde twirled in front of them, Aerith expected that something would happen.

And it did; she bumped into someone as she twirled. Aerith became wide-eyed, because she wasn't expecting the expected to actually happen. She suppressed a laugh as Elena fell flat on her bottom, while Cissnei guffawed at her underclassman. "Ow!" Elena exclaimed, as she rubbed her butt. Cissnei laughed like a hyena while the brunette was fighting hard to not laugh.

Aerith reached a hand out to Elena. "Are you okay?" Elena grumbled and with the help of Aerith's hand, stood up to face the person she bumped. When she realized who it was, she gasped – even Cissnei stopped laughing.

It was Genesis, accompanied by a girl who looked like an older Elena, except with blue eyes and longer blonde hair that fell just on top of her shoulder. Other than the different color in their eyes, all their facial features were the same – although this girl had a stoic expression, while Elena was more cheerful. Genesis had an arm slung around the mysterious girl. Aerith heard Cissnei scoff.

"Elena." The blonde stoic girl addressed her lookalike. "You should look as to where you're going."

"… Ada…" Elena looked bothered. Cissnei went to stand beside her underclassman.

"Hey, Ada." The redhead smiled genuinely at the stoic – Ada – and turned a second later to glare at Genesis. The handsome brunet just smirked at her. Cissnei's eyes became slits. "Oh sorry, did we disturb something? We'll leave now." She started to make a grab for Aerith and walk away, but her wrists were in Genesis' hand before Aerith had the time to react.

"Let go of me," she hissed. Aerith saw Ada's expression turning to a slight shock. The arm Genesis used to sling around her shoulder was the same one that held Cissnei's arm right now.

"What's wrong, Cissy? You jealous?" Genesis smirked at her. Aerith had to admit, his smirk was really inviting and handsome.

"Don't you _dare_ call me by that!" She wriggled her hands free of his, and Genesis sighed in defeat. He stepped back beside Ada once more, with the same arm slung around her. The brunette saw Ada turning into stoic once again, as Genesis returned to her side. Cissnei backed behind her own cousin, fuming and mumbling incoherent curses.

_They must've had a history, _Aerith thought, while she looked between Cissnei, Genesis and Ada. She decided that she didn't want to know.

"Not going home, sis?" Elena asked Ada. Looks like Aerith guessed right about Ada and Elena's connection.

Ada looked at Genesis then back towards her sister. "Tell mom and dad, will you?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "Yeah, have fun and give _me_ the dirty work." Ada gave her no attention at this point; she turned towards Aerith, and bowed slightly, with the same stoic face. She gestured Genesis to let go of her shoulder before properly facing the brunette.

"Ada Anderson." She held out a hand, and Aerith shook it. "Senior member of the student council, same like Cissy and Elena." The small brunette was genuinely shocked by this revelation. "Third year, if you're wondering." She still spoke with stoic, bland faces, which was actually starting to annoy Aerith deep down inside.

_How can someone be so… composed?_ "Aerith Gainsborough… um, second year, and Cissnei's cousin."

Ada nodded. "I am aware of that." She turned to the redhead fuming behind Aerith, still mad about Genesis. "Cissy, I'll have to burden you with duties again. I'm sorry."

Aerith could feel Cissnei turning her head to face her senior behind her, and uttered a quick "yes" before she could see the sight of a certain handsome man just behind Ada. He made a quick look, top to bottom, towards Aerith.

"So… you're Cissnei's cousin." Genesis was now scanning Aerith. "You do look a bit like her in the eyes. During first break you certainly caught one of our SOLDIER member's attention."

The small brunette gulped and her face promptly became red. Ada and Elena took notice of this and was surprised, Elena showing it a bit more than her stoic sister. Cissnei, however, didn't look pleased.

"What nonsense are you talking about? You're not thinking of bullying my cousin, are you?" the redhead's voice was deadly. Genesis looked taken aback.

"Course not. Besides, your cousin looks like she knows who I'm talking about." He smirked at Aerith, who ducked in embarrassment. Seeing this behavior, Cissnei became stunned. The brunette's face was still red, her head in all sorts of places; but, in particular, it was remembering a pair of beautiful blue eyes.

_So he noticed me that whole time…_ Aerith recalled the events during first break. All she remembered was that every time she turned to face Zack, he was either munching on his sandwich or laughing with his friends and admirers. She hoped he did not overhear her discussion about him with Yuffie and Tifa – although they were a safe distance away, she still wanted to make sure. The fact that he knew she had Biology when he was nowhere near her during her conversation with Tifa in the hallway, giving her directions, was quite miraculous. He even came to Biology _before_ her, for God's sake!

Aerith mentally slapped herself again. _How can I be so sure it was him?_

_But who else could it have been? Sephiroth and Angeal don't know you. Genesis couldn't care less, except for the fact that maybe you're Cissnei's cousin. You're not even sure if Cloud is a member of SOLDIER, even if he did sit beside them._ The brunette frowned at her conscience. She took a glance at Cissnei, who looked like she wanted to interrogate her about an offense. Aerith was dreading to go home now.

"Humph, I thought so." Genesis' husky voice led Cissnei to glare at him once more.

Ada, who recovered from her shock, turned to Elena and said, "I cleaned up your mess in the HQ. You didn't think to clean when you saw Tseng leaving the room, didn't you? Haven't I told you to be more careful?"

Elena, who glowered at her sister, retorted for the accusation. "SHUT UP! I can take care of myself, Ada, thank you very much." The two bickering blondes diverted the others' attention from Aerith's blushing face and Genesis' statement.

"You're not doing a very good job at it." Ada's constant calm expression was the last straw for Elena.

"FINE! I'll just have to be _more like you,_ don't I? That way, I can impress you, right?" the cheery blonde's face became angry – it even snapped Aerith out of her blush. "I hate being compared to you! Why was I ever born under your shadows? Let's see if I was the older one!" She spat on the floor and stomped away. Ada showed a very slight frown at her fuming sister that now grudgingly walked towards the school gate.

Cissnei looked appalled. "Not again…" she slapped her forehead. "No worries, Ada, I'll take care of this. C'mon, Aerith." The redhead took her cousin's hand and dragged her towards the school gate.

"Thanks, Cissy." Aerith turned to Ada and Genesis as she was being dragged away; the blonde's face was the same as always (_How does she manage to do that?_ Aerith thought) but Genesis looked frustratingly at Cissnei who did not even bother to look his way anymore. Frustration led him to dishevel his brown hair.

Aerith, at that moment, found out that Cissnei was gorgeous enough to actually make one of the handsomest guys in school fall head over heels for her.


	7. Cissnei

_A/N: sorry this update was late, I'm currently having exams right now and it needs my full attention. ;A; on the other hand, I'm almost done with them, so when that's over I'll prepare to brainstorm for this fic! :D  
I'm glad that lots of people are enjoying it, my inbox gets a few notifs about people adding this story to their alerts or favorites. these emails give me motivation thank you all so much!_

_

* * *

_

Home never felt really quiet.

For the past two weeks of Aerith living in Cissnei's house, she's never experienced a day without her cousin blabbering on and on about God knows what. She always, _always_ had something to say. Whether it was concerning the arrangement of flowers in her living room, or how she got some clothes for Aerith to wear, or how the road leading up from her house to the nearby park is really clean and very refreshing to walk past by.

And yet, now, as they eat on their dinner table munching on their respective lunches, Cissnei won't say a word. Feeling the awkwardness of the situation, Aerith decided to observe the house from where she sat on the table.

The living room of Cissnei's house is split into two – one half for the dining room, and another for the living room. The living room side has guest couches, TV, and decorations like flowers and pictures and paintings. The dining room has a rather large table sitting right in the middle, has chairs for 10 people, and it connects to the kitchen, which connects to the back courtyard where the greenhouse is. The living room has the stairs to the family's rooms. Cissnei's room was directly beside the window on the edge of the hallway upstairs, while Aerith's is right beside the stairs. Aunt Naia and Uncle Ralph's room was right across Cissnei's bedroom door. There were three bathrooms – one downstairs, and two upstairs. One is directly connected to the master bedroom, where Cissnei's parents sleep. Another is right across Aerith's room, where the two cousins share a bathroom. The one downstairs is exclusively for the guest's use, alongside a guest bedroom.

Until now, Aerith had never realized how big this house was. Sure, she knew that Cissnei was rich, but she had never bothered to notice. Aunt Naia, Uncle Ralph, and Cissnei were relatively normal people, so it was hard for Aerith to believe. When she lived in the slums, people had a tendency to stereotype rich people as snobby people who do whatever they want, and she had lived with that prejudice ever since she was little. But now, since she got to see first-hand on how these people really were like, they weren't that bad. Actually, Aerith really enjoyed the times with her mother's family in this house.

_Guess it's the same with people here, stereotyping people who live under the plate as different from them, _she thought silently as she munched on her food. It was fried rice with eggs and orange juice.

Aerith glanced up at Cissnei, who chewed her food with no visible expression on her face. The brunette scowled – she's not used to her cousin _not _talking, but she herself doesn't know how to start a conversation. Especially after what happened earlier after school, when the two chased after Elena when she stormed away from her sister, Ada, in anger. Aerith contemplated for a while if it was wise to talk about that now.

Before she could make up her mind, Cissnei spoke first. "Is the rice good?" she looked hopefully at the brunette.

"Uh… yeah! It's delicious." Aerith took another spoonful of fried rice to her mouth.

"Good. I thought it wouldn't suit your tastes. Auntie Leah suddenly had a holiday, that's why, so you'll have to settle for my cooking for the next 2 weeks. Is that fair?" Cissnei eyed her cousin. Auntie Leah was Cissnei's family's cook and housemaid.

Aerith nodded. "Yeah, it's fine. You can probably teach me how to cook in the process, too." The brunette laughed, but to her surprise, Cissnei's response was only a small smile, which stopped her laugh in its tracks. They continued to eat in silence once more.

Aerith, not standing the awkwardness, decided to start a conversation. "So, um… about today…"

Cissnei clapped her hands, as if she forgot something. "Oh, right! So what do you think about Finale Academy? It's nice, right?" She grinned at her cousin, as if the silence a moment ago never happened. "I've gone to school there ever since elementary, and it's like a second home to me."

The brunette was mildly surprised at this information. "Really? Ever since you were little?" Cissnei nodded at her. "Well, that explains a lot…" she thought loudly, but closed her mouth quickly after she realized what she had just said.

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "Explains what?" her cousin peered at Aerith with one of her famous 'investigation' eyes – intimidating, yet alluring, according to Uncle Ralph ("Only second to her deathly glare!" which was what he said with so much ease that it startled Aerith) – the stare which brought a frown to the brunette's face.

"Um… weeeell…" she thought hard. "You sure know a lot of people." To her surprise, Cissnei looked disappointed.

"Er, Cissnei? You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But I can tell there are a whole lot of other things you'd like to ask. For example, earlier with Genesis and Ada… am I spot on?" the redhead winked at her with her hand aiming at Aerith like a gun. The brunette gave up figuring out on how in the world she can read her mind with such straightforwardness.

"… yes." Aerith felt sheepish saying that. She felt she was intruding into something she shouldn't have.

Cissnei munched on her food once more. "Well, I'm not really comfortable talking about _him_ right now, so let's change the subject!" she clapped her hands. "So what made you so silent during math class today?"

Aerith suddenly remembered her dilemma. "Oh, right… um, how do I ask this…?"

"Well? Spit it out, I won't bite."

"Okay then, but don't expect me to be lenient on you." Cissnei looked surprised at her cousin's statement. "How the hell did Tristan know about my origins?"

Upon this question, Cissnei became pale white – the reaction Aerith had expected – and looked as if she were going to be punished severely if she were to talk back and answer her. She looked down at her food, as if to repent. It was the same face she made in Biology after the unfortunate fight she had with Tristan, in which she almost exchanged blows with him if it were not for Reno's intuition.

Aerith scoffed. "How could you do this to me, Cissnei?" she stood up after finishing the last of her rice and eggs. "I thought we promised to not mention this to anyone." The brunette piled her plate and glass in the kitchen, and walked upstairs, leaving her cousin on the dinner table to contemplate about it.

* * *

Inside the greenhouse a few hours later, Aerith was furiously chopping off weeds from her favorite rose. She had been in there for about an hour now, tending to each and every plant. The greenhouse occupied around a third of Cissnei's back courtyard, with glass roofs and a sprinkler system. The inside was lined with low shelves filled with various species of flora; few that even Aerith was surprised that it could survive in Midgar's climate, mixed with colorful flowers that lightened the view of the shelf from the entrance of the greenhouse. There was an elongated desk spread out flat in the middle of the greenhouse, on it a beautiful range of flowers that could rarely be found above and below the plate. Aerith was grateful for Aunt Naia's obsession over flowers, and bless her, she has been tending to them for years on end. She once told the brunette that her love for flowers originated from her grandfather, which probably passed on to Aerith, skipping Elmyra's generation.

But anyway, Aerith, for once, stepped in this greenhouse out of fury. She was still mad about Cissnei and the fact that she 'slipped' the truth to Tristan. She still can't believe it. Tristan might have accepted her now, but to what extent the brunette did not know. Prejudice still roots deep in Midgar, between the people above and below the plate, and somehow, Aerith thinks that Tristan won't be that easygoing towards the discrimination. Although the fact that he talked to her normally today at second break, she still can't forgive Cissnei for it.

Aerith chopped off the weed beside her white rose in rage, which succeeded in pulling the resistant weed out of her sight. She moved on to the next pot of flowers, having done the white roses, and hacked away at the annoying parasites, the poor things a substitute for Aerith's anger.

She was on her last string of weed when she misaimed her sickle and accidentally slashed her arm.

"OW!" she howled involuntarily. When she observed her arm over her sleeves, there was a huge gash from her elbow to her wrist. Thankfully, it wasn't deep, but it was bleeding profusely. Aerith let out an exasperated sigh, and threw her sickle on her small pile of weeds situated beside her. The brunette stormed out of the greenhouse, snatching her gloves off her hand and leaving her boots and overalls on. She opened the back door with her injured hand, which stung as she turned the doorknob.

Aerith half-expected Cissnei to be sitting on the couch as she last saw her before she left to tend her flowers an hour ago, but the redhead of her cousin was no longer sitting on the couch. The brunette was mildly surprised, but quickly ignored the matter. She went to the kitchen and searched the cupboards for a first-aid kit.

_There's gotta be one in here somewhere…_ she rummaged the shelves with her good hand, but it proved inconvenient as she settled a few items on the counter. Some of the culinary items were pretty heavy, and she had to hold a few with her slashed hand. It hurt, but it was worth it, as she saw a white box marked with a red cross sitting below a pile of large Tupperware. Aerith quickly settled it on the kitchen counter, and opened the contents.

She found iodine and a few bandages, and a gauze, untouched. Aerith rolled up her sleeves (with a bit of difficulty) and washed the wound at the sink – she winced in pain when her cut went in contact with water – and wiped the water off gently. Next, she applied iodine, then quickly ripped the gauze from its paper cover. She eventually found it hard to wrap the gauze around her whole arm, and was forced to sit down at the small table in the middle of the kitchen and redo everything. Minutes later, Aerith gave up and started searching for long bandages, when she heard a door opening at the front.

She turned around, and was surprised to see Cissnei walk through the front, carrying groceries and a small handbag. The redhead started for the kitchen, but then stopped at the door as she saw Aerith sitting down on the small table in the kitchen, rummaging through her first-aid kit. At first, they didn't exchange glances, but Cissnei quickly assessed the situation and rushed towards her cousin, looking wide-eyed at her long gash. She dropped her groceries below the table.

"What in the world happened?" Cissnei's words were filled with worry, Aerith realized, as she dragged out a chair and sat down across her cousin.

"Er, I accidentally cut myself with the sickle…" the brunette looked down, embarrassment and surprise filling her face.

"WHAT?" Cissnei said that as she stole the gauze from Aerith's hand. "You should be careful with those stuff, seriously," she ranted as she wrapped the gauze around Aerith's arm. She finished in a flash, with a small knot just above Aerith's wrist to secure the wrap. The gauze now wrapped along Aerith's whole left arm, concealing her wound, leaving it to heal. Some red blood was painting the white gauze red, but the brunette didn't mind, for now the cut has been tended.

"Thank you," she whispered to Cissnei. The redhead promptly nodded.

Silence followed the brunette's words, only broken by Cissnei taking her groceries from the floor and settling it on the counter. Apparently the cousins still found it awkward to talk after the 'incident' during lunch.

Aerith rolled her sleeves back over her arm, and grabbed her gloves to make a run for it quietly, when suddenly Cissnei's words stopped her dead in her tracks. "Sit."

The brunette gulped, but quickly swallowed her nervousness, replacing it with mild anger. She sat back down with her arms crossed, observing her cousin intently.

Cissnei followed right after, taking out the chair across her and sat back on it. Aerith noticed she put four bottles of apple juice on the table as she did so. The redhead clasped her hands together, and rested them on the table.

"Look, Aerith," she said, braving to look into the brunette's eyes, "I know you want some explanation."

_Damn right I do,_ Aerith thought, but held back on the urge to say those words aloud.

Cissnei sighed. "You remember two weeks ago, right? The day we first met?" Aerith slowly nodded.

"Well, a month before that, I first knew your mother died," The redhead said carefully, but at the mention of her mother, Aerith felt a clump at her throat. "And it truly did surprise me that mom had a sister that lived below the plate. It surprised me even more that she had a daughter, the same age as me." She paused for Aerith to digest everything in. The brunette waited for her to continue, not sure where she's getting off from.

"My mom, that day, immediately suggested that you live with us, on the day of your mom's funeral," Cissnei said. "And yes, my mom was there, under the plate, during Aunt Elmyra's funeral. You probably didn't recognize her, but she did recognize you. Mom kept in contact with Aunt Elmyra, despite the, um, unfairness between down there and here. I'm pretty sure it put a strain in our mothers' relationship at some point in their lives, but they did write letters to each other nonetheless. Anyway, um, one and a half months ago, mom decided that she would clear the room upstairs for you to use." Cissnei paused for a breath, while Aerith slowly took her story in. "She told us about the situation you were forced into after Aunt Elmyra died; poverty, hunger, no one else to depend on except a few of your mother's friends under the plate, who was also living the same life as you did. Dad and I, we listened to it all. Mom was clearly dead set on you living with us that day.

"Dad, he… he immediately agreed with my mom. They even bought you clothes and all, and were planning to take you in a week after the funeral." Cissnei halted, shuddering slightly, before uttering the next words. "I, on the other hand…" she stopped, lips trembling. Aerith took it all in, then suddenly jumped at the realization.

"You didn't want me here," Aerith whispered at her cousin.

Cissnei glanced at her, unable to meet her brown widened eyes. The redhead was on the verge of tears, the brunette took notice, but Aerith was too appalled to even comfort her.

"… Yes. I didn't want you here. I didn't want you, Aerith Gainsborough, a girl who's lived under the plate her whole life, living inside my home, my sanctuary." Cissnei was now crying, tears flowing down her cheeks. Aerith's jaw was weak; she couldn't even form words.

"T-That was the reason why you had to endure living such hell for a month under there. I forced my mom and dad to not take you in, even threatening them at some points." She wiped her tears to no avail – it flowed endlessly. "Mom and dad were clearly very disappointed in me; they certainly didn't know that their good, perfect little daughter was such a total racist." Cissnei choked on that sentence. Aerith felt a painful tug at her heartstrings; it caused her eyes to blur with her tears.

"Because they were so persistent, yet so patient, trying to convince me to take you in, I ran away from home. We had such a huge fight concerning you. T-They kept saying that you were dying of hunger down there… no food, no shelter… a-and yet, I was trying to deny your existence.

"I ran to Navi's house, which was the nearest house on the block, but found that Tristan was home alone that week. His whole family, twin included, was off to vacation in Costa De Sol. He found me crying on his doorstep, and took me in." She paused to sniff. "He clearly was surprised seeing me there, eyes swollen from tears. I calmed down in his living room and he asked me what was wrong. I then told him everything."

And for the first time that afternoon, Cissnei looked directly into Aerith's eyes. Both eyes were filled with tears, and seeing Aerith cry made Cissnei cry even harder. Aerith cried in silence, looking at her cousin, who looked so remorseful, so swollen, eyes so red, ruining her beautiful face.

"I-I-I… I'm so sorry, Aerith."

After what seemed like minutes, Cissnei finally calmed down, her eyes puffy. She took the nearest tissue box, wrought out a tissue, and blew her nose into it. At the sound, Aerith quickly wiped her tears with her hands.

Cissnei continued. "Tristan was surprised about me having a cousin who lived under the plate, but he was also disappointed in me for doing such a stupid thing. I threatened my parents and all, just to keep you away from me. Aerith, you… you don't know what I've done to them. I broke their hearts. And all those threats… they were horrible. I couldn't even begin to describe what I've done." She choked once more, but held the tears in.

"I stayed in his house for three days. I borrowed Navi's clothes and room, and managed to escape from my parents unnoticed. I knew they searched for me, but I absolutely refused the go home that time. I could tell, at the second day, that Tristan was getting a bit aggravated at me living in his house. He said something about 'a guy and a girl shouldn't live in one house alone', but I ignored him anyway. Besides, I cooked for him, so he really had nothing to complain about. I was really stubborn that day.

"At the end of those three days, Tristan decided that he would take me under the plate, to observe you. Of course, I went ballistic at him. I…" she trailed off.

Aerith finished her sentence for her, choking as she did so. "You were disgusted."

Cissnei didn't even glance up at her words, but Aerith could tell at her face became pale. The brunette wiped off more tears at this gesture.

"Y-yes. I was." Cissnei grabbed another tissue and blew her nose. "But he was stronger than I am, and successfully dragged me to the train station to go under. We arrived in the Sector 5 slums, and frankly speaking, it truly appalled me. The stench, the sights…"

Aerith nodded, although she was unsure whether Cissnei took notice of it.

"He went off to look for you, and asked me about any description I knew about you. I knew that you liked to tend to flowers like my mom, and he asked a nearby shop in the marketplace that sold accessories about a place where flowers usually grow under here. The shop owner was clearly surprised when he looked at us – we were wearing well-off clothes, so he probably knew we lived above the plate. He spat at us, saying that there was a church where unusual flowers grow continually, and slammed the door to his shop, back facing us.

"That was more than enough for us, and Tristan started to look around for any signs of a familiar cross for a church, and found one. We stepped inside, and we were truly surprised at what we saw."

Aerith didn't need to register the rest – Cissnei was just describing her favorite place in the whole world, the church under the slums that no one ever bothered to come anymore. It was relatively cleaner than most of the buildings under the plate, with wooden floors but marble pillars supporting it. There were rows of long chairs, ending at the far end of the church with a medium-sized patch of dirt filled with flowers, where the sun actually shines through.

"And you were there, in the middle of the flowers, sleeping soundlessly. Tristan wanted to wake you up, but I didn't. I stared at you for about half an hour or so, and you didn't wake up. In that moment, something clicked inside me. Somehow, I didn't feel any… discrimination anymore. I looked at Tristan, and I could see it in his eyes; he too, felt the same way." Aerith became wide-eyed.

"I even felt disgust in myself, somehow. I was disgusted at the fact that I was so blind to everything, so-" she paused for a bit before saying the word, as if it was some sort of poison. "Racist. Aerith, you have this really weird power that just pulled me out of something short of an endless abyss. It was really weird.

"I left you to snooze, because somehow, I could tell that you were really tired. When I came back above the plate, I officially went back home. Course, mom and dad were worried sick, but gladly they understood what I went through. They also told me, that they wouldn't force me to live with someone I wouldn't know anymore.

"But I told them that I was ready." And for the first time during that conversation, Cissnei smiled while looking directly into Aerith's eyes. Both girls' eyes were bloodshot, but Aerith could see Cissnei's genuine smile, which really magnified her beauty. "After seeing you, I realized what an idiot I've been, and I really wanted to know more about you."

"And now, here we are, sitting together in this kitchen, talking like this." Cissnei took another tissue and blew her nose again. "And there you go."

Aerith didn't know what to say to her. Her heart was in a small dispute; one part told her to ultimately leave this place, while the other begged for her to stay. The brunette's only motion was to grab a tissue and also use it to blow her nose. She could tell Cissnei was waiting for some sort of response from her, which is why she isn't talking.

After minutes, one part of her heart seemed to have won over. "Cissnei, I…" The redhead looked at her hopefully. "… I really don't know what to say."

Her cousin sighed. "Yes, I know. I perfectly understand if you want to leave this instant."

The brunette shook her head. "I won't leave. If there was one thing my mother would tell me to great lengths to do, it's to keep staying alive," Aerith started, "And to live life. _Live_."

Then she choked on the lump in her throat. "That was also her dying wish to me." Aerith said that low enough for only her to hear, because Cissnei gave no indication that she heard it.

Cissnei formed a smile at her cousin's statement, and rose from her chair to walk beside Aerith and hug her. Aerith was surprised, but she quickly returned the hug. No matter how much the truth hurt her, Cissnei was still her blood, her kin. They loved each other unconditionally, as cousins. No, something more special than that.

"Sisters?" Aerith smiled above Cissnei's shoulder.

They broke apart, and Cissnei laughed. "Sisters." Aerith was relieved to see her beautiful features donned with the same beautiful smile she's been showing Aerith these past two weeks.

"Whew! I feel like something really big has been lifted off my back." The redhead jumped up and down, bringing Aerith with her. "I'm glad that's over with. Look at our faces," Cissnei pointed to her puffy eyes. The cousins laughed, a beautiful voice as it reverberated throughout the kitchen.

"We need to wash our faces. By the way, does your wound hurt anymore?"

Aerith shook her head. "Nah, not anymore."

"I'm pretty sure I'll be questioned by Tristan and Reno once they see that huge cut of yours. They told me in HQ today that you were pretty interesting. Wonder what that means, hm?" Cissnei raised an eyebrow at her cousin, who scoffed.

"Nah. They're… brothers. Yeah. Nothing more than that." Aerith turned to the table, and grabbed a bottle of apple juice. She drank it, the sensation of it relieving her coarse throat that turned that way due to too much crying.

"Oh? You have someone else in mind?" Upon Cissnei's words, Aerith choked on her juice. She looked at her cousin disbelievingly.

She snickered. "Sorry, but I can't help thinking about Genesis' words earlier. A man in SOLDIER, huh? You got a nice catch, Aerith." Cissnei smirked, something that did not escape Aerith's eyesight. The brunette quickly drank the remaining of her apple juice, and threw the remnants of the bottle to Cissnei, point blank. It hit the redhead's forehead with a dull _thunk._

"Ouch!" Cissnei rubbed her forehead. "You didn't have to take it so personally!" Aerith giggled at her cousin, who was now fuming. "You know, I will find out who it is."

The brunette shook her head. "I don't know who it is either."

Cissnei scanned her. "But you gotta have someone in mind, right? I'm pretty sure you do. Genesis' words made you blush like a newborn baby. That means you have an idea on who it was."

Aerith stayed silent, pouting. As much as she'd like to say who was on her mind the whole day today, she suddenly became so unsure.

"Never mind, don't say it." Cissnei put a hand in front of Aerith's face. "I'll find out on my own. And when I do…" She smacked her palms together and rubbed them, along with a mischievous smile creeping at her face. Aerith dreaded this look of hers.

Seconds later, Cissnei turned to the bathroom downstairs to wash her face, and when she came back, Aerith was looking at her with an unreadable look.

"What?" The redhead asked.

"Just one question," Aerith stood up, "Cissy?"

The redhead's laugh echoed throughout the room. "Those two sisters and I have a _long_ history."

* * *

_A/N: did anyone catch the part where Tristan's love for Cissnei shows? tut-tut. embarrassed guy he is..._


	8. Questions?

"I still can't get used to this," Aerith said hastily to her cousin as they ran for school the next morning, "if you don't want us to lose breath each time we reach school, I think we need an extra loud alarm clock."

Cissnei frowned at Aerith, although it was hard to take notice of since the two were dashing so fast. "Sorry, never really was a morning person." She broke into a sprint, leaving Aerith a few meters behind, who promptly yelled at her for hurrying ahead. Although, that was no use, since Aerith caught up with Cissnei a few minutes later.

Both stopped before the right bend to go to the school gates to take a deep breath and compose themselves before entering the brass gates. A few students were jogging behind them, a few chatting animatedly with their friends as the walk calmly along the school boundaries, and some drove into the parking lot situated in front of the school brass gates to park their expensive foreign cars (Aerith couldn't help but notice the BMWs and SUVs) before slamming their car doors to catch up with the now slowly closing gates.

"Come on, we gotta hurry." Cissnei walked ahead, Aerith right behind her, as they fast-walked towards the school gates. It closed just as Aerith entered the tall arc leading into the school's courtyard. Cissnei breathed out a sigh of relief. "That was close."

She then walked with an air of authority towards the gates, to where students are now clutching the brass as they desperately, with no avail, try to get in. Seeing Cissnei approached them, a few lit up their faces, but the majority was pleading her to open the gates. Aerith saw her shake her head.

"No can do, guys," she said apologetically, "school rules." Cissnei brushed off the hand of a girl who tried to reach the automatic knob on the wall of the gates. "Next time, try getting in earlier." The redhead winked at the small crowd in front of the gates, who (to Aerith) sort of swooned with her small gesture. The males, especially, because a few promptly turned into a tinge of pink.

Apparently the small crowd gave up in trying to climb the fairly large and tall brass gates, and a few sat down waiting for the gates to open. Cissnei started to turn her back on them, when suddenly, a petite figure stood up, her short black hair bobbing in place as she jumped a step back, ready for a running start.

The figure jumped back all the way to the entrance of the parking lot, stood there for a moment, all the while calculating the distance between where she stands and the gates. After looking left and right, making sure there were no cars on the road, the small figure ran towards the school gates with incredible speed, climbed up the brass bars, jumped in midair, and landed with a _tap_ on the ground inside the boundaries of the school. Her landing was perfect, because afterwards she stood up, seemingly undisturbed and unhurt. The onlookers beyond the gate looked furious with a few with their jaws dropped.

Aerith looked at the person in awe, before realizing who the short girl actually was. Cissnei turned, wide-eyed, and started scolding the incredible small athlete. "YUFFIE!" Her voice was a strange mixture of anger and incredulity.

Yuffie Kisaragi grinned at Aerith's cousin. "Sorry, Cissnei, I had to," the black-haired girl looked at the redhead goofily before fixing her tie and her skirt, which was a bit short for her own good. "I can't afford to skip school today; else my parents would have my head." Cissnei shook her head with disbelief.

"I know you're extremely good at sports, but this is just…" she trailed off. "What if you got hurt?"

"Nah, I'll be fine, you should know that more than anyone," Yuffie cheerily replied, "We've been in the same gym class for as long as I can remember." Finished with fixing her garments, she slung her school bag on her shoulder and trotted past Cissnei, only to see Aerith with her jaw dropped standing in front of the school's arc entrance. Yuffie's expression significantly glowed at the sight of the brunette.

"AERITH!" Yuffie promptly glomped the brunette, who nearly stumbled backwards upon the impact. "Hey!"

Aerith colored her expression with surprise – Cissnei's face mirrored hers. "H-Hello, Yuffie…" she struggled free from the girl's grip, her left arm stinging from her unfortunate incident yesterday. Yuffie smiled at her, to which Aerith responded by doing the same. Cissnei now stood beside the two friends, eyes darting from one to the next. The brunette looked at her cousin sheepishly.

"Oh, right," Yuffie slapped her forehead in realization, "I almost forgot you two were cousins. Must have slipped my mind." She beamed at Cissnei, who sighed.

"You two know each other?" The redhead began questioning.

"Y-yeah," Aerith replied, "we have homeroom together."

Cissnei observed the two, before coming to a conclusion. "Well, Yuffie's always been the cheerful and social one. I can see why."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yuffie snapped at the redhead.

"Oh, nothing, just surprised that Aerith quickly found a friend on the first day of school, and close enough for you to hug, to boot." Cissnei sneered at the black-haired girl, who pouted. "I'm glad, actually, for you, Aerith. Thanks, Yuffie."

"No sweat! Besides, you don't need to thank me," Yuffie said as she put an arm around Aerith's shoulder, "Friends are friends. Both of you are." She grabbed Cissnei's shoulder on the other arm, and started dragging the two inside the courtyard. When they arrived in what seemed like the middle of it, she finally let go.

"So," Yuffie piped up, "should I do the honors of walking Aerith to our classroom, or should you?" she gestured at Cissnei, who shook her head.

"Mr Valentine's, right? I'll leave that to you, Yuffie. Mr Barrett will kill me if I'm late."

"We still got around 10 minutes, shouldn't take you that long to-" before Yuffie could finish her sentence, Cissnei has already dashed off to the interior of the building. Aerith looked at her cousin incredulously, who managed to wave to the two.

"-go to his class," Yuffie finished her sentence, to which Aerith chuckled. "Every time I see her, she always seems to be busy. Guess student council really isn't all that… WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED?" Yuffie suddenly burst out.

Aerith was so concentrated on Cissnei that she jumped when Yuffie suddenly changed the subject. The brunette looked at her, scrunched forehead, before she realized what she was talking about. Yuffie was eyeing her left arm, which was completely wrapped in gauze, and still bleeding, although not as much as yesterday. Aerith mouthed an 'o' at her mouth before calming Yuffie down.

"Hey, Yuffie, I'm fine," she said, and with her left arm waddling in front of Yuffie's gaping face to emphasize her point, "it was just an accident in the greenhouse."

Yuffie twitched. "Does it hurt?" she said as she poked Aerith's wound, spot on, which made her yelp. Yuffie suddenly became wary. "AH! I'm sorry!"

Aerith rubbed the spot where Yuffie pricked. "Nah, it's okay…" the wound started throbbing in pain.

Judging from Yuffie's relaxed expression, Aerith knew that she bought her lie. "Okay, good." Yuffie started walking towards the door to the inside of the building, Aerith following behind her, still rubbing her wound.

Since this morning, somehow, the big gash from the cut has worsened ever since Aerith went to sleep. Maybe it was because she strained on using that hand too much to the point that the cut probably reopened and became bigger. The brunette wouldn't risk opening the gauze again, because then she'd have a hard time wrapping it on her own, and she wouldn't dare ask Cissnei for help just in case it did get bigger. Cissnei really likes to worry, after all. Aerith doesn't want that.

In the end, the gauze on the long cut remained untouched, although the blood really was dampening the cloth. _Looks like it was deeper than I thought,_ Aerith thought. She made a mental note to go to the school's nurse later on in secret.

Yuffie stepped into their homeroom class, Aerith followed closely after. Just in a fraction of a second, the small black-haired girl was surrounded by people. Aerith, surprised at this sudden movement, crawled against the wall as to not get trampled on.

"You did it again, Yuffie! We saw from the courtyard," a blond male gave her a high five.

"It's been a while since I've seen that jump. Never thought you'd do it right on the second day of school!" A girl with curly streaked hair winked at Yuffie.

"No prob, guys," The small girl beamed. "To be honest, I thought that I wouldn't survive that jump."

Murmurs from the small crowd with Yuffie in the center still can be heard even from across the fairly large classroom. Aerith succeeded in escaping the crowd, and settled in her seat, near to where Tifa is sat. The long, black-haired girl was reading a rather thick book before noticing that Aerith had sat beside her. The brunette looked at the title of the book.

"Er, 'The History of Midgar's Plate'?" Aerith asked her. She chuckled.

"Hey, Aerith. How's it going?" She waved a hand from behind the book before putting a bookmark and slapping it shut. Tifa noticed the wrapped arm. "Holy cow, what happened?"

Aerith waved the bad arm again, in front of Tifa. "I'm fine. See?"

To the brunette's surprise, she scoffed. "Yeah right. It's still bleeding, isn't it? I think it's better for you to change that…" Tifa pointed at the gauze, which was now brown-colored from rusted blood. "Maybe I should lead you to the infirmary after this."

"Eh, er… would that be okay? What do you have next?" Aerith looked at the clock above the blackboard. It was 7 o'clock past 5. Homeroom would be over soon.

"I'll be fine. I got English next, and so do you. Don't worry, Mr Andrew will understand." Tifa rummaged her bag, and brought out a familiar white hardcover book. "By the way, did you read the poem?"

Aerith peered at the book – it was LOVELESS, the book of the famous play. She nodded, remembering that she managed to read the poem last night, but even after she read it over and over, she still did not get the meaning. She considered asking Cissnei for help, but was afraid to disturb her, since Aerith read it during midnight. Cissnei was the type to sleep early, unlike Aerith who is used to staying up, so she had no help in how to interpret the meaning.

"This was actually the first time I've read the book," Tifa started, "It's interesting. I've watched the play once or twice, and it was a great play. The book, however, has so many deep emotions, so many thoughts and feelings that can't be conveyed through the play. I was really surprised. I gobbled up like half of the book yesterday," Tifa said sheepishly. Indeed, she did read until halfway through the book – there was a bookmark in the middle of the pages – which made Aerith feel embarrassed. She only read the poem, which she did not understand, compared to Tifa who read ahead.

"Um," Aerith gulped, "Tifa, I-"

The bell rang before she could say anything else. The small crowd in the back of the class dispersed away from Yuffie, who ran through the doors like lightning. Aerith stood up, and realized that Mr Valentine was reading something intently with his reading glasses. She followed Tifa out the door, before glancing again in the class and she had just recognized that Zack had not been in homeroom.

* * *

After briefly gathering their books for the next two classes from their lockers (Aerith's locker was pretty far away from Tifa's, even though their class' lockers sit right in front of their homeroom), Tifa showed Aerith the way to the infirmary. The location is pretty secluded from the classrooms, being in the corner of the right hall of the courtyard.

"In here, you can find the nurse. She may not be back, since it's the start of the year and all, but I think you can handle yourself, can't you? Shouldn't be hard to ask the nurse…" Tifa explained. Aerith knew that it took her time to even show Aerith the way, and the infirmary is pretty far away from the English classroom. Aerith peeked at Tifa's watch, who was glancing at it too – she only had five minutes to reach the English class.

"Okay then. Thanks, Tifa, for showing me the way. You don't have to do this, you know," Aerith said, as she shook her head. The brunette kind of thought that she was starting to be troublesome to Tifa. To her surprise, Tifa shook her head, clicking her tongue.

"What are friends for? Anyway, I gotta run. I'm really sorry to leave you here, Aerith," Tifa said apologetically, "but the nurse is really kind. You'll be fine, I'm sure. And you know where the English class is, right?" Aerith nodded her head at the hurried black-haired girl. "Good, I'll see you later!" And Tifa dashed off towards the end of the hallway, where the English class resides.

Aerith waved at the running Tifa, then faced the door to the infirmary. She took a deep breath, and then opened the door.

The infirmary was smaller than what she imagined – she thought that it would be at least as big as a small clinic, judging from the size of the whole school. Although it was smaller than normal classrooms, it was still big enough to fit in 5 beds. Four were unoccupied; the last bed at the left corner near the window facing the track field was covered by a white curtain, so Aerith was unsure whether there was anyone there. But, judging from the silhouette, someone was either sleeping or laying down there. She shrugged and then moved forward to the end of the room, where to the right of it lay the desk and instruments for the nurse to use. She glanced around, but there was no one there. She then remembered what Tifa said, about the nurse not being back for the start of the school year.

Aerith frowned; at this rate, she won't get to the English class early enough to supply a full lesson. "Um… is anyone here?" she called out.

No answer. She tried again. "Hello?"

A jerk of a curtain being pulled back occurred behind her. She jumped in fright, then turned around. "I don't think the nurse's he- oh." Zack Fair sat up on his bed, rather stoned realizing that Aerith was the one who was here all along.

Aerith held back her breath so suddenly at the sight of him that he could probably hear it. Her eyes accidentally clashed with his, clear blue against emerald green. She was so immersed in them, she even forgot to blush.

"Er," he started, not breaking eye contact, "Well…" he stood up beside the bed, reaching a hand to his hair.

At the same moment he stood up, Aerith started blushing fiercely. Realizing this, she quickly turned around to cover her face – only to knock into the desk with her bad hand, scattering all the papers. She let out a yelp in pain, and stumbled to the ground. The wound throbbed painfully, and Aerith had to bite her lip to keep from forming tears.

Zack, like the speed of light, suddenly kneeled by her side. "Whoa, you okay?" he reached out a hand, but she did not take it. The pain was still getting to her.

He quickly took the message, and grabbed her left wrist. Aerith cringed and twitched, but Zack held the hand with a firm grip. "This is pretty bad. What happened?" she noticed the note of worry in his voice. She looked up, and found herself immersed in his eyes again, much closer than before. Her blush worsened.

"I-I-I-I, uh…" with herculean effort, she pulled away from his gaze and stared at her hand in his grip. "I slashed myself with a gardening sickle yesterday." Now that she noticed, there was more blood oozing from the gauze. She panicked.

Zack let go of her wrist, and stood up. He grabbed Aerith's waist and hoisted her up his shoulder with a grunt. Aerith, startled by the sudden movement, tried to face him, but because her upper body rested on his shoulders, she couldn't.

"W-W-W-What are you doing!" she tried breaking free, so startled by what Zack just did, but to no avail. He was really strong.

"Pipe down before you hurt yourself," he said in a surprisingly calm voice. Aerith's blush worsened. She did as she was told and stopped trashing on his back. She grabbed hold of his back for balance, and felt his muscles.

_Whoa, he works out a lot, doesn't he…_ she initially thought, but then she snapped out of it. She wanted to slap herself for even thinking that.

Zack walked and plopped her on the edge of the bed he just slept in. He did it with so much ease, as if Aerith was made out of feather. She was left to sat there, dumbfounded, while Zack looked around, as if to find something. After a while, he finally got a chair and sat on it in front of Aerith.

"Er… what-" Aerith started.

"So, about that huge gash," Zack cut in, "How'd you get it?" Their eyes met again.

_Eep. Calm down… _"I, um, like I said, I slashed myself." Aerith decided to be brave and kept the eye contact. He smirked at her statement; she found it almost impossible to keep looking at him now. Almost.

"I thought you were joking." Zack grabbed her left wrist again. "When was this?"

Aerith raised her eyebrows. "Around yesterday, afternoon. Why are you interrogating me as if I've done something wrong?" He laughed in response, a singsong voice, which promptly made her blush.

"Sorry. Just that this looks pretty bad," Zack said as he unwrapped the gauze around her arm (_whoa, since when was he doing that?_ Aerith thought), "And looks like I was right." Zack looked at her arm, cringing. Aerith observed it also.

Aerith's left arm was now soaked in blood, with bluish and purple spots coloring the places near the gash. It was still throbbing after knocking over papers from the desk, Aerith realized. "Ugh, I really should have changed the wrap this morning," she said under her breath in disgust.

Zack reached a hand out to touch the wound; when his finger contacted her arm, Aerith yelped in pain. He quickly retracted his hand in reaction to her scream. "You okay?" The note of worry was back in his voice.

Aerith opened her mouth to answer 'yes', but her voice wouldn't come out. If she said yes, it would have been a lie. Heck, even if she did lie, Zack probably wouldn't believe her.

"Right, this," Zack held up the bundle of gauze that previously wrapped Aerith's arm, "needs to be changed." He aimed it to the desk and threw it, in a perfect arc, and the roll of gauze successfully entered the trash can. "Score!" He pumped his fist down with a smirk on his face. Aerith can't help but think that that smirk will one day cause her to have a heart attack.

"So, where do you think the replacement gauze is?" Zack asked Aerith, who became startled at the question.

"… You're joking, right?" Aerith asked him, while she observed her cut. It was throbbing painfully alongside a bit of bleeding – if she left this she was afraid that she'd faint from blood loss. Zack chuckled slightly at her answer.

"Of course I was. Now give me a minute to find it," He said before he took off to the cupboards near the nurse's desk. Unconsciously, without her knowing, she actually did start to count 60 seconds in her head. At the end of those 60 seconds, Zack came back and sat on the chair he put in front of her, new gauze in his hand.

"You really did take a minute," she blurted out, but quickly shut her mouth. Aerith just realized how stupid she just sounded. Knowing that, she face palmed – Zack eyed her then burst into laughter.

"You actually counted? You're really peculiar." He unfolded the gauze. "You do realize that whole 'give me a minute' phrase was just a figure of speech?"

"O-Of course I do!" She blushed, and they made eye contact again. He smiled at her, noticing the blush. Aerith curled her hands into knuckles to prevent her face from getting redder, but apparently it got worse. _D'oh, what is wrong with me!_

"Then why'd you count?" Zack continued.

"B-Because, uh… you told me to give you a minute… so I kinda unconsciously counted in my head." _Aerith, stop! You're sounding like an idiot!_

"Oh, so you would do anything I tell you, even if I didn't mean it?"

"Wha-? No, no, I don't think so-"

"Hmm..." Zack paused to directly look into her emerald green eyes. "So, if I told you to come here every day before homeroom to talk to me, would you do it?"

"No, I- What?"

"Would you do it?" Zack repeated. He smiled right into Aerith's face during their eye contact – she felt her heart skip a beat.

"B-But-"

"Finished," Zack cut in her sentence again. Aerith glanced at her arm, and saw that it was fully wrapped in the gauze he just got – not much blood was shown seeping in, and the throbbing stopped. She looked at it in wonder, then at Zack who started standing up from his chair. "That should do it, yeah? I'm gonna go to class."

"W-Wait! I need-"

"Tell me your answer tomorrow, okay? Come here before homeroom if you agree to do it," He said, reaching a hand to his hair, ruffling it. His back was facing Aerith.

"You mean about the- the-"

"Remember what I said before, when I wanted to know you better?" Zack faced her now. "When I escorted you to Geo?"

She nodded. She had a feeling that if she talked now, he would just cut in again. It annoyed her a bit, but she couldn't help but feel warm inside, for some odd reason.

"Well, I still want to, so… tomorrow, give me an answer. If you don't come, then I won't bother you again." He said these words with such a straight face to Aerith, she became wide-eyed.

Before she replied him, Zack dashed off and reached the door of the infirmary. "I can't wait to see your answer tomorrow, Aerith." He smiled at her, and then closed the door behind him, leaving Aerith in the infirmary alone.

She blushed fiercely minutes after he closed the door. Then she muttered a few words under her breath – it was a statement to her, to make sure that it was real, that she wasn't imagining things.

"That was the first time you said my name."


	9. Getting to Know You

_A/N: aaah! I'm so sorry this update came late I just got back from a month-long vacation around 10 days ago, and I had to really rack my brain to continue the plot bunnies. I'm also working on two other fics, but they're just not posted yet because I don't think that I'd be able to handle two posted fics at once. er, anyway, enjoy this chapter! this is where it all starts to get... you know. /grins_

* * *

Aerith couldn't concentrate the whole day today. After that incident in the infirmary, everything in her eyes became all… she couldn't explain.

_All bubbly, I guess,_ she thought. Her face went flush with color.

Everything that passed her mind that day went out as soon as it went in, because it couldn't overpower the memories of the infirmary, and Zack himself. It did not help that her gash (which had miraculously healed after Zack wrapped the gauze around it – not much blood was seeping through anymore, and it did not throb when she poked it) reminded her even more of those memories, making them more vivid than what it seemed to be.

And so, she bonked her head on her locker because her mind cannot seem to obey her orders of getting those memories controlled.

Cissnei stared at her with raised eyebrows. "You okay, Aerith? In math you couldn't seem to concentrate."

They both just had math class, and since now it's break, Cissnei offered to come with Aerith to her locker so she could get her textbooks for the next two lessons.

Aerith stared at her, her forehead red from banging the iron locker. "Yeah, I'm fine." She proceeded to take out her History book and another clean notebook – her fourth lesson was Chemistry – and slammed the locker shut.

"You don't seem fine. You've been torturing yourself all lesson." Cissnei shouldered her bag.

"Oh yeah? How?" Aerith said absent-mindedly. Her mind was starting to disobey her again.

Cissnei scoffed. "For starters, you bit your eraser until it split into two halves. Then around ten minutes later you 'accidentally'-" she noted with her fingers mocking a quotation sign, "- stabbed the back of your hand with your pen. When the lesson ended, you threw your chair back." Cissnei tapped her foot, waiting for Aerith to answer.

"… In my defense, two of the three were by accident." Aerith lowered her head, embarrassed by her previous actions. She wanted to slap herself with her History book, but she didn't want to give Cissnei yet another thing she could point out about her behavior today.

"Ugh, seriously, you're driving me crazy," the redhead said as she threw her arms up. "This morning you were just fine, but then two hours later you start fidgeting and go off to your own world. Did something serious happen?"

Aerith shook her head. "Not something serious."

"Aha. But something _did_ happen." Cissnei gave her cousin a sinister smile. "Do you know how easy it is to corner you?"

"Tell me about it," Aerith groaned. _Zack did just that around 2 hours ago._

"So," Cissnei clapped her hands as they went through the hallway to the cafeteria, "what happened?"

Aerith looked at her for a split second before answering. "Nothing much," she mumbled.

Cissnei crossed her hands as the cousins walk towards the food tray. "Tell me," she said through gritted teeth, almost pleading.

Before Aerith could brush her off the subject, Cissnei accidentally bonked someone's head as she grabbed a tray. The brunette was left speechless and wide-eyed as Cissnei just realized what had happened.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the redhead said to the man in front of her, the person she accidentally gave a mild concussion to.

The person turned. "Geez, Cissnei, will you watch where you aim that thing?" He was a man a head taller than the two girls, with slicked-back black hair cropped short to the length of his chin, and a muscular body. Aerith noticed that he was extremely handsome.

Cissnei gapped for a moment before replying. "Sorry, Angeal," she muttered.

Angeal chuckled, and at that moment Aerith remembered that he was another member of SOLDIER. "Don't beat yourself up about it; wasn't any big deal. I hardly felt anything, promise." He patted the side of his head, where Cissnei took a blow on.

Cissnei let out a dry laugh. "Yeah, sure it was nothing on you. I've seen you fight, and the blows you take could kill a grown man."

Aerith chuckled along with, before she realized that Cissnei might as well be telling the truth.

Angeal smirked before moving on through the display of food, giving a small bow of recognition to Aerith (which she returned) and allowing the rest of the line to move on and get their lunch. After Aerith and Cissnei both settled on their food (the brunette was surprised by the menu; they had food that could put five-star restaurants to shame) and took their seats.

While they munched, Aerith saw Angeal move through a crowd to take a seat on the fountain. He looked a bit more mature than the rest of the SOLDIER members, even for Sephiroth.

"Is Angeal always that polite?" Aerith asked. Cissnei looked up from her tray.

"He's about the only SOLDIER member I can actually tolerate," Cissnei said. "Genesis, well, you know the deal, I can't stand him. Sephiroth's just out of the question. Zack… let's just say we went off to a rocky start."

Aerith was taken aback. "You and Zack know each other?"

She must have sounded really eager, since Cissnei raised an eyebrow at her question. "What's it to you?"

Aerith stammered. She forgot how observing and keen her redhead of a cousin was. "N-Nothing. Oh look!" the brunette held up what looked like a piece of lettuce. "Doesn't this look tasty?" She gulped it, before immediately spitting it out, gagging. Cissnei looked at her incredulously.

"If even by the mention of Zack you become so distracted that you have to eat a piece of green tissue, then he's the guy I've been trying to figure out since yesterday." The redhead deadpanned as she chomped on a piece of sandwich while Aerith tried to get pieces of tissue out of her tongue.

* * *

"Why are we going this way?" Aerith asked.

"I wanna take a detour," Cissnei answered. She noticed the worried expression on her cousin's face. "Relax! I know this neighborhood like the back of my hand."

"B-But your house was twelve blocks and four detours ago," Aerith said, biting her lip.

The two cousins had just finished their last lesson, and Cissnei decided to drag Aerith after school for a 'walk in the park', but Aerith thinks that it's going a little too far. Literally. It's been so far that Aerith even forgot the way home (not that she remembered it clearly in the first place…)

Cissnei sighed. "Do you hate nature that much? I just need some time off the house. You know, what everyone does after school; hang out!"

Aerith twitched. "'Nature'? You wouldn't even try to walk in the greenhouse."

Cissnei ignored her, and Aerith had to jog to keep up with her pace. Occasionally the redhead started the conversation with one topic ("the skies are opening up for us!") and somehow drifted off to a completely unrelated one ("I heard that hair-curlers are really bad for you, but of course, I doubt any of us would go five feet near that thing…")

Cissnei finally stopped at a park around a dozen blocks away from the school and their home. "Whew! That was a good walk." She continued to a set of swings and started playing on it, her smile giddy. This was _not _Cissnei.

Aerith became wary. "Cissnei, are you okay?"

The question caught the redhead's attention. "Why would I be otherwise?" She gave an unexpected glare. _That _scared her.

"Okay, I must have done something to piss you off, because that look you gave me was uncalled for," Aerith said as calmly as possible. She was scared. When Cissnei was mad, she tends to be explosive. She's seen her at it with Uncle Ralph about Aerith's clothing (although the brunette had to admit, Cissnei was doing her a favor at the time), and it wasn't pretty.

The redhead sighed. "Let's just put it this way," she started. "You're making a big mistake."

Aerith put on a question mark. "What?"

"Aerith, you're my cousin, and I care about you, and I want you to be happy. But you need to wake up."

"From what?"

"Hello! Zack Fair?"

Aerith finally knew what this was about. She shut her mouth, waiting for Cissnei to continue.

"Let me get this straight first. He's a member of SOLDIER. It's common that people get instantly attracted to them. They're handsome, girls dig handsome boys. Great personality, each guy needs a buddy once in a while. But, let's face it; you have absolutely no chance."

Aerith took in her words carefully. "Why is that?"

"Look, I've seen, lived, and breathed through this kind of affection. A girl crushes on one of SOLDIER; take your pick. She starts to become completely serious to the point of delusion. In the end, you realize that he's never going to look at you. The girl either accepts this and moves on, tries to keep the feelings inside, or basically go crazy. Because once you realize the futility of this, you start to become aggressive. That's where the bullying comes in."

"B-bullying?"

"Yes. When a girl gets too aggressive in her affections, she starts to stand out. And when she starts to stand out, she's a target. Basically, the easier competition to eliminate."

Aerith stared at Cissnei, pursed lips. She tried not to say anything, but it was getting really hard.

"It's even worse when you get singled out, when it's obvious that one of them favors you." Cissnei looked exasperated, as she buried her face in her hands. She didn't say a word, and kept her face hidden from Aerith.

The brunette lit a light bulb in her head. "Genesis?"

Cissnei looked up. "What?"

"Genesis," Aerith repeated.

"What does this have to do with him?" Cissnei said. It's wasn't clear, but there was pain in her voice.

"Oh, come on, Cissnei," Aerith said. "It's so painfully obvious. If anyone couldn't see that, I'd be surprised."

The redhead shook her head. "There's nothing between us. He's settled with Ada, and that made pretty much everyone back away. By the way, did you know that she could kill with her stare?"

"Stop changing the subject." There was a tone of finality in the brunette's voice.

Cissnei shut her mouth and crossed her arms, waiting for Aerith to continue.

"I know now why you're telling me all this. Has this happened to you before?" Aerith looked at her cousin, trying to read her expression. She looked a little somber.

"You don't need to know about that. I'll tell you when… when you understand."

"No, I need you to tell me now."

Silence elapsed between the two. For a moment, only the wind and the children playing around in the park were the voices they could hear.

"I'm serious, Aerith," Cissnei finally said. "I'll tell you when you'd understand."

"And when would that be?" Aerith crossed her arms over her vest and tie. Her bag started to sag from her shoulders, until it finally dangled in the area of her elbow. Cissnei didn't answer her; rather, she started playing with the swings. Aerith only watched as she got higher and higher, until she was soaring.

_There's no cornering her now,_ she thought bitterly. Aerith dropped her bag in the sand and started playing along with her. When Cissnei realized this, her face brightened up considerably.

The two soared higher and higher; the kids in front of them playing slide now sat in a line at the edge of said slide. Their faces looked so awed, Aerith had to smile. They kept pointing and making voices, as if they've seen something amazing. The redhead and brunette kept going and going, until both were at their highest peak. Adrenaline surged through Aerith, and without a second thought, she looked up at the big blue sky, closed her eyes, and let go of the swings.

She soared through the air – at that moment, she felt ecstatic – then she landed on the ground, hands first. She basically crashed and felt the ground scrape her cheek.

Cissnei skidded to a halt, almost flying off the swing as she rushed towards Aerith. The kids were now crowding over her. "Oh my god! Are you okay?" She helped her up on her knees. "Back off a bit, kids," Cissnei said politely to the kindergarten crowd. They obeyed her, but some tried to help. All of them looked worried.

One kid sat down beside the cousins, her shining black hair tied behind her with a ribbon. She was wearing a small white sundress with baby blue crocs. Her face looked very worried as she turned back and forth between them like a tennis match. "Is she okay? Tell me she is!" the little girl said as she shook Cissnei's arms.

Cissnei gently brushed off the little hand. She patted Aerith's head. "Hey, you okay?" she was getting suspicious, since she hasn't had a reaction.

Aerith looked up and gave her cousin a goofy grin. "Let's do that again," she laughed giddily.

Cissnei and the small crowd gave her a jaw drop. Contrary to the others, the small girl beside her gave her a bright smile. Aerith smiled back at her, and they both started laughing.

Cissnei crossed her hands and glared at Aerith. "You almost gave me a heart attack!" Her response was a bunch more of other kids laughing along. The whole swing and slide area was a stage of laughter.

The redhead couldn't help but smile at the scene. Aerith gave her a 'sorry-I-scared-you' look. Cissnei sighed and decided to let the matter go as a few of the kids clung onto her and patted her shoulder, giving her words of forgiveness, as if she was still mad. Cissnei shook her head and tried to assure the kids that she was fine.

Aerith patted the small girl that sat beside her earlier. "Thank you, but I'm completely fine. Don't do what I did though, okay?"

The small girl nodded. There was a twinkle in her eyes. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Aerith," she answered. "Yours?"

"I'm-" before she could finish the sentence, a boy with flaming red hair rushed over to her. He wasn't that much older than her, but it's very obvious that he looks more mature than the small girl.

"Marlene! I told you not to run off!" the boy shouted at her. The girl, apparently named Marlene, was startled by her friend's interruption.

"I didn't run off, Denzel! I just wanted to play with the others for a change," she pouted. Denzel grabbed her arm and hoisted her up. He looked like he didn't want to hear the explanation.

"Come on, we're leaving. Your dad's calling us." He looked up and noticed Aerith. "Who're you?" he said to her rather rudely. Aerith was startled at this kid's nerve.

"Aerith," she said. The brunette hoisted herself up, then dusted the sand and grass off her knees.

"Oh," Denzel simply replied. Marlene was still pouting at him, trying to let go of his grip. "I can probably jump better than you on the swings," he boasted. Aerith chuckled at him. _He's so cute._

"Really now?" Aerith patted his head, to which he brushed off. "What makes you think that?"

Denzel glared at her. "Because I'm younger than you! I'm still 9! How old are you, 40?"

Aerith stared at him in disbelief. "For your information, I turned 16 last month," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "Tell you what, let's have a competition. Next week, same day, same time. Let's see who can jump the highest. You on?"

Denzel pointed at her. "You're on! You get to buy me ice cream when you lose!"

Aerith laughed. "And if you lose, you get to hang out with me every week. Fair?" Marlene's eyes lit up when she heard those words. Aerith gave her a wink.

Denzel hesitated. Aerith can only picture what's going through his head right now; _can I really trust this lady? Is it okay for her to play with me… with us? _He looked at Marlene, and even he could tell she looked excited. Aerith could see a hint of annoyance when he turned towards her.

"Fair," Denzel finally said. He shook Aerith's hands, then held out a pinkie. "Promise!"

"Promise," Aerith said, holding out her pinkie to curl it around his.

Denzel gave her a smirk. "Don't go crying when I beat you next week!"

Aerith laughed at his confidence. "We'll see, little guy." She ruffled both of Denzel and Marlene's heads. "Now, move along. Didn't you say her father's looking for her?"

"Uh-? Oh yeah! Come on, Marlene," Denzel said as he dragged her away from Aerith.

While she was being dragged, Marlene had a chance to look behind her and shout to her new brunette friend. "I can't wait for next week!" She managed to wave at Aerith, to which she waved back. Aerith swore she saw Denzel do a small pout on his face.

Cissnei, after waving the other half of the children goodbye, stood beside Aerith with her hands on her hips. "Now what was that all about?"

Aerith chuckled. "I love kids. They're so cute." The brunette walked towards her bag and hoisted it up her shoulders. "Let's go home, I'm starving."

"I'm with you on that one," Cissnei said as she rubbed her belly. Aerith could hear a small grumbling sound from within. "Er, about the discussion we had earlier… just remember it, will you? Before you make any rash decisions."

Aerith contemplated about it, her arms crossed and her eyes focusing on her feet. "… okay."

"Good," Cissnei heaved a sigh of relief. "That's all I ask."

* * *

The next day Aerith woke up at precisely six o'clock in the morning. She was wearing her white and red pajamas that she got from Cissnei (it was comfortable, although around one size bigger, since it was Cissnei's originally). She slammed her alarm clock to shut it down, and was glad that she took her own advice to set the alarm clock much louder than before. Today, she wouldn't be running to the school gate again.

She walked with groggy eyes to the bathroom across her bedroom door and washed her face. When she was finished, she found a very delicious smell lingering in the air from downstairs, and suddenly she found her tummy grumbling. She smiled as she listened to Aunt Naia and Uncle Ralph talk downstairs; she was very grateful to be here.

From the balcony on the edge of the hall, she took her towel that was hung out to dry the previous night, and proceeded to take a shower. After that she put on a new set of her uniform (she had around 3 of the same set, Cissnei said that it would be better if she only wore one set each two days) which Aerith found pretty weird since below the plate you usually wear the same clothes for a week; a month even, if you have no dry-cleaning money. It didn't matter, though, because Aerith really liked her uniform.

When she reached downstairs and into the dining room, she found only Aunt Naia and Uncle Ralph sitting across each other, eating their toast and eggs.

"Good morning, Aerith," Aunt Naia said. "You're up really early."

"Hello, Aerith! There's my favorite niece," Uncle Ralph added. The brunette smiled sheepishly at them. She proceeded to take her usual seat beside Aunt Naia. She started to turn her head at every nook and cranny of the house, then to the empty seat across her. She gave her aunt a quizzical look.

Aunt Naia laughed. "Are you looking for Cissnei?" Aerith responded with a nod.

"She said she had a really early meeting with the student council, so she left around 30 minutes before you came down," Uncle Ralph said as he chomped at his toast. "Was there something important you wanted to ask her, dear?"

Aerith thought about his question. She _did_, actually. The brunette had actually been thinking about this all night – about Zack's sudden offer – and was wondering if her decision was the right thing to do. She planned to ask Cissnei the morning when they usually walk together to school, but now that she's not here, she'll just have to decide for herself and believe in it. Besides, she wouldn't want to bother her with something this trivial. Just wanting to get to know better about someone is the same as making friends. _I'll be fine,_ she reassured herself.

"No," Aerith answered her uncle. "nothing at all." She chomped through her toast and eggs, drank her milk at record speed, and stood up. "I'll be going now." She slung her bag on her shoulders and waved to her aunt and uncle. "Thank you for the breakfast!"

Both of them waved at her. "Have fun at school!"

After closing the house gates behind her, she started to walk to the school by memory. She made a mental note to try and remember things better from now on, which includes her sense of direction. With a few wrong detours here and there, and also following some students with the same uniform as her, she finally arrived at the school gates around thirty minutes after she left the house.

She wiped the sweat off her brow. "That was tiring…" she could even see stars flying through her eyes.

Aerith glanced at the big clock on top of the school's huge arc that led in the courtyard, and found that it was still fifteen minutes before seven. "Good, I still got time," she assured herself.

Mere seconds before she passed the school gate, a foreign, expensive-looking red shiny car zoomed past her and entered the parking lot across the school gates. At once, a whole crowd of students gathered around it. Aerith looked at the crowd quizzically. _Who could that be?_

Her question was immediately answered. A tall handsome man she recognized stepped out of the car, and he was greeted by swoons of girls. Aerith chagrined. _Genesis,_ she thought, _go figure. _She was about to step in the gates before she was reminded by the talk she had with Cissnei yesterday. She looked back at Genesis, and realized Ada wasn't around. Well, that was obvious by the fact she's in the student council and thus now has an important meeting.

Well, whatever happened between the three, Aerith is unsure whether she would like to know or not.

She decided to let the matter go and stepped into the courtyard. There weren't many students yet, or there were already a lot, just that they've already gone into their classrooms. Aerith stopped in front of the fountain, where the SOLDIER guys hang out. She took a deep breath, and thought about Zack's offer for them to become better friends (the brunette has successfully convinced herself that she – or Zack – had no other ulterior motive). There was no downside to that. If the worst comes, she'll pull through. _There are worse things in this world, _Aerith thought, _like losing your mother._

A crowd of voices behind her threw her thoughts away. Genesis and Sephiroth were walking side-by-side with a bunch of girls and their other friends. Aerith scurried away from the fountain and hid behind a bush while they took their usual seat in front of the fountain. She looked around, and there was an entrance to the right hall behind her. _Guess this is it,_ she sighed.

Remembering where the infirmary was, she took a right from there and stopped at the very end, where a door stood, a hanging label written 'infirmary' on it in bold, red letters. She opened the door after much hesitation.

Like the last time Aerith saw it, the infirmary was empty, sans for a man who was sleeping in the far-corner bed. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Zack's sleeping form.

While her heart drummed rhythmically with her steps, she stood beside the bed where Zack was sleeping soundly. His breathing was slow, contrary to her heart, which was beating faster each passing second. She carefully sat near Zack's feet on the bed, trying not to wake him – but at that precise moment, Zack flung his eyes open.

They both froze. Of course, their eyes met at the exact time he woke up. Emerald green against electric blue. They were like that for quite a while (Aerith doesn't remember if she breathed or not) before Zack sat up on his bed, crossed his hands, and gave Aerith a warm smile that could give her a heart attack.

"I knew you would come," he said to her. "Good morning."


	10. Not What it Seems

_A/N: here it is! chapter 10. I'm sorry I'm such a lazy arse these days. ;A; I hope I can bring the next chapter much faster, I've got a lot more in store. anyhow, senior year started today for me_, _and school will most likely take up most of my time. but I promise that I will continue bringing you chapters! enjoy this one! I think I somehow made this one longer to make it up to you all :)_

* * *

Aerith unconsciously bowed her head in response. "G-Good morning," she stuttered.

Zack chuckled, noticing her rather polite attitude and her uneasy response. "Relax," he said, "I'm not going to hurt you." He proceeded to move his body so that he sat at the edge of the bed, next to Aerith. She noticed that his feet touched the floor, whereas hers need to be suspended so she can sit on the bed comfortably.

"How's your arm?" Zack suddenly asked. Aerith looked at him for a second before she realized what he was asking.

"Y-Yeah, it's fine now." Aerith started to unwrap the gauze. What's left of the wound is now just a long scar that's still in the process of healing, but no longer bleeding. "See?"

Zack nodded. "Are you gonna wrap it again, or…?" he grabbed her wrist to see the scar closely.

Aerith had to take deep breaths before responding, since they're practically sitting right beside each other until their knees touched. "It's not that bad, so…" she sprung off the bed. "I'll go get a new gauze." Before she could proceed any further to the counter, Zack tightened his grip on her wrist.

She turned towards him with a quizzical look, to which he just responded with a smirk. "The gentleman has to take care of the lady, right?" he said. He leaped off the bed after letting go of her hand, making sure she stayed put. Aerith had to scrunch her face to keep it from blushing.

While Zack searched the counter for more gauze, Aerith took her attention to the windowsill beside the bed. There was no window between the infirmary and the view outside; that of a large track field which doubles as a high-jump and long-jump area. She stared in awe at the view. It was quite normal, except for the fact that the field was surrounded by a garden a land higher than itself, bridged with stairs and a place for spectators to watch a match. Aerith eyed a few of the gardens, and noticed that a few were not tended as carefully enough. Her hands were itching to pull out those weeds, but she knew better. Some students were wandering around the field, dragging carts of balls to the basketball field opposite the track field.

She moved forward, leaning on the windowsill to take a closer look, when she noticed a small pot plant sitting on the corner of said sill. There was no plant growing on it, just damp soil. Aerith eyed it interestedly before digging into the soil; sure enough, there was a bud growing in there. She grabbed the pot to take a closer look at the life growing before her, all the while smiling serenely.

"You look very interested in that pot of flower, aren't you?" Zack suddenly said, his elbow supporting his head from the windowsill beside Aerith. His sudden comment made Aerith jump out of her mind. Zack's left hand held a gauze, and his face bore a small smirk. She looked at him wide-eyed, her heart thumping at the interruption (and quickened by the fact she met his eyes again). She wanted to hit her ribs so that she wouldn't have to keep feeling like this anymore. She was afraid that he'd realize.

Zack became alert. "Sorry, did I scare you?" he frowned.

Aerith smiled at him – she was finally getting used to her heart being uncontrollable around him – and shook her head in response. "No, sorry. I was overreacting. Don't fret about it," she said, turning her gaze back to the potted plant. "So it's a flower?" she asked him hopefully.

He raised his eyebrows at the corner of her eye. "Yeah, it is."

"Hmm…" Aerith started racking her brain. "needs more sun," she concluded. She started looking around the infirmary, trying to find a place where the sun shines bright. The windowsill was in the shade right now, and in the morning it's important for a plant to find sun to grow, especially a seedling like this. She started glancing and frowning; there are not many places where you can find sunlight in the room.

"Earth to Aerith," Zack said, waving his hand in front of her face. She whipped her face towards him in surprise. "Wow, you really weren't joking when you said you slashed yourself with a sickle," Zack said, laughing.

Aerith turned red, aware of the fact she just ignored Zack for a potted plant. "On second thought, maybe I'll leave it here… ah, but, it won't grow as efficient like the flowers in the gardens over there," she pouted. She quickly looked at Zack again, who was crossing his hands and smiling like trying to hide a laugh.

She turned red again. "W-What's so funny?" she carefully asked.

Zack burst into laughter. He put his hand in front of his mouth, trying to tone down his laughter, but to no avail. "You're so cute," he blurt out in the middle of his laughter.

Aerith felt her heart skip a beat. She stared absent-mindedly at the boy who is now laughing in front of her, with a red face difficult to hide. She quickly looked down when Zack calmed down and met her eyes, trying to bury a hole with her eyes in the potted plant. She saw Zack grinning like an idiot at the corner of her eye.

"So," Zack said as he took the plant from her hands and placed it back on the sill where it belonged, "you like gardening? That's really… unique."

Aerith nodded, not taking her eyes off the plant. Her face still had a tinge of red from embarrassment.

"That's really cool. You don't find a lot of people who like to do that these days. Most girls in this school like texting on their phones or wearing makeup and all… you know, the norm." Zack said, leaning on the wall.

Aerith tilted her head to one side, confused. "Is that considered a hobby? Cissnei doesn't do that." Her mind thought of Yuffie and Tifa. "The girls I know here don't do that."

"I never said it was a hobby of theirs, but considering they do it so often, you might as well call it that." He then grabbed a chair and then pointed at it. "Sit."

She raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

Zack chuckled slightly, then held up the gauze, waiting for her to get the picture. She mouthed an 'o' at her mouth before glancing at her left arm. "It's really fine. After you treated it yesterday, the wound just kinda closed," she told him.

To her surprise, Zack shook his head, and pushed her gently into the seat, knelt down by her knee, and started wrapping her arm with the gauze. "You can never be too careful. It might just reopen." he continued to wrap it around her arm carefully and swiftly. Aerith didn't realize that they've elapsed in silence as they both examined him working.

A minute later, her left arm became completely wrapped in fresh, new gauze.

"Done," Zack said with a smile on his face. Aerith examined her left arm carefully. She moved it gently back and forth. No pain registered into her brain, so she concluded it was alright now.

"Thanks," she said, standing up from her chair, while Zack did the same from the floor. She took a unconscious glance outside the window, and saw Elena walking through the field with a guy she recognized. They both looked really busy (the various documents in their hands said so) but Elena's face showed otherwise. She looked like she enjoyed being with the man. He had black hair cut short until his chin, which he tied back. It was the same third year she saw hanging around with Cissnei and Elena on her first day here.

Aerith perked up and pointed out the window. "Oh, it's Elena," she exclaimed.

"Huh?" Zack said, lifting an eyebrow. His eyes followed where her finger was pointing. "Elena Anderson? You know her?"

Aerith nodded. Zack crossed his hands, a stern look on his face. "Huh," he snorted. "Does that mean you know Tseng too?"

Aerith lowered her hand and scratched her head in confusion. "Tseng? Who's that?"

"The guy walking beside her," Zack answered. His voice sounded odd.

She shook her head. "Nope, I don't know any Tseng," she answered, "but he looks familiar." Aerith eyed Elena and Tseng again. They started exchanging documents and pointed at the windows of the buildings, presumably discussing something about the school.

"Familiar how?" Zack asked again.

"I don't know. I just feel like I've seen him before… somewhere." Specifically under the plate in the slums, but she didn't want to tell Zack that. Besides, why would a guy like Tseng hang around under the plate anyway? It must have been someone else that looked like him.

"Huh," Zack said as he put his hands on his hips, face scrunched. He looked like he was thinking hard. "I'd thought that you'd know the name of the leader of the student council in this school, with Cissnei being in it too."

Aerith whipped her face towards him. "_He's_ the leader?"

"Yeah. Didn't your cousin tell you?"

She shook her head. "No, she didn't tell me anything. The only council members I know, including Cissnei and Elena, are Reno, Tristan and Navi," she said while counting, unconsciously holding out fingers. "Even then, I only really know Reno, and even that, we're not _that_ close. Yet."

"'Yet', huh…" Zack responded. "Just remember, not every student council members are what they seem. Believe me, I know." His voice retained cautiousness.

Aerith raised an eyebrow. "If you're referring to Reno being a delinquent once, he said he changed his ways."

Zack shook his head. "No, not like that. Rumor is that they're actually spies for the President of the school. He's hardly ever here, so they take care of his job to look after the school. Keep order, create peace… and always take out the source of a problem." His voice turned grave.

She stared at him wide-eyed. "'Take out', as in…?"

"Expel them. Wipe them off the school grounds. Erase any record they existed. That kind of stuff."

Aerith's heart sank. Despite the fact she knew it was just a rumor, Zack made it so convincing that he just made it harder for her not to believe it. _Cissnei's been doing that? _She thought bitterly.

She must have had something on her face expression, because Zack quickly retaliated. "Sorry, I think I just scared you. Don't worry, it's just a rumor, we're not even sure if that's true. I-I mean, I doubt Cissnei ever did any of those things…" he blurted out, his tone worried.

Aerith didn't say a word. Rather, she leaned on the windowsill, face scrunched while looking at Tseng and Elena. There might have been some truth to his words. Before Aerith started to go to school here, Cissnei said that Finale Academy isn't what it seems. Although the brunette had asked her what she meant, the redhead dismissed the subject about their school entirely and continued doing her homework at the time.

Now that Aerith thought about it, Cissnei's homework even seemed weird. She looked like she was filing a report rather than doing math questions or making an essay. For starters, her writing was indiscernible ("it's something called a doctor's prescription, they write like this," Cissnei had said) and it took around 200 pages. Even if Aerith never properly did an essay in her school under the plate, she knows that that's entirely not normal.

There was this one time where Cissnei would go out in the dead of morning, come back for the afternoon, and go again at near-midnight. Granted, it was actually only once (and the strange 200-page essay was gone the day after) but that was actually the first time Aerith doubted her new family. Aunt Naia and Uncle Ralph even found it normal, not bothering to check whether their daughter was in the house or not. Strangely, it was only that day they didn't even bother worrying about Cissnei, as if everything didn't happen.

The brunette looked down glumly. "… You might be right."

"Huh?" Zack asked.

"… About that rumor." Aerith sighed. "Takes a person to live with one to know one."

Zack looked taken aback. "H-Hey, I was just- I mean, I didn't mean to bring you down like that… the only reason why I told you is so you wouldn't get to close to them."

Aerith jolted from her gloomy state and stared at Zack. "Why shouldn't I?"

Zack stiffened. "Well… uh…" he scratched his head.

"Tell me!" Aerith demanded.

"… To be honest, I don't know." Zack finally said. "Y-You probably heard that us SOLDIERs and the student council aren't exactly close… the bridge between us two is mostly made by Cissnei and Tseng. So… yeah."

Aerith sighed in exasperation, realizing the point. "So you're worried once I get along with the student council members, I won't hang out with you, a SOLDIER?"

Zack stood there in silence, with crossed hands, but his eyes basically agreed. Staring at them, her heart rate sped again; not only because they're so beautiful, but the fact that he basically said that he doesn't want anything getting in between of their newly-found friendship. It was the first time anyone ever valued something of hers. After a few seconds, Aerith smiled at him serenely.

"Don't worry. Because… because I want to be with you too." Her cheeks felt a blush going on, but she successfully suppressed it.

Zack stared at her in mild disbelief. They both stayed like that for a whole minute, not saying anything. Aerith had lots of thoughts racing in her head, on how embarrassing this is to say, and how her heart is beating as fast as her speed of thought. Zack looked pretty embarrassed himself, which made her feel like she should grab a corner and stay there forever. But somehow, she couldn't bring herself to look away from his eyes.

_His eyes… why are they so…_

"So pretty…" Aerith broke the silence.

Zack smiled. "The face?"

Aerith laughed. "Nope. The eyes," she answered him, "So blue. Like the sky."

Zack looked taken aback. "Well then, stare at them for as loooong as you want." His face got closer to hers, their eyes clashing, each staring deep into each other's soul. She became so immersed in them that she didn't realize their faces were so close they almost touched. She instantly blushed.

"Oh you!" she pushed him away playfully, then tried to hide her face in her hands. Zack laughed heartily.

"Your eyes are pretty too," Zack said.

Aerith looked at him in surprise. She didn't even bother hiding her blush this time.

"They're like emeralds," Zack continued, "they make you get engrossed in them."

She started breathing slowly and more controlled now, believing in what she heard and thinking that she's being delusional at the same time.

_I should be the one saying that to you,_ she screamed in her head, but saying that out loud would just embarrass her even more. She didn't say a word for the next few minutes, obviously too preoccupied with what Zack just said. He didn't say anything either, so the infirmary elapsed in silences once more.

What finally broke the tensed two was the bell, signaling homeroom has started. Aerith jumped from her mind, and judging from the slight spasm from Zack, he did too. She glanced at the wall clock across the room, and indeed, it was now seven o'clock sharp. She reached for her bag on the bed and turned to Zack, to see what he was doing in reaction to the bell.

To her surprise, he walked past her and proceeded to sit on the bed, facing her, as if he was going to go back to sleep. She gave him a quizzical look. "Um, Zack…? You're not coming?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "It's okay, you can go first." He started to lie down on the bed. He stopped when he saw Aerith's look of disbelief. "Don't worry. I got my time."

She raised an eyebrow. "Come to think of it, you weren't at homeroom yesterday either."

Zack chuckled. "So you noticed."

She was taken aback. "Uh, well… err…"

"Don't worry about it," he cut her off. "Mr. Valentine's used to it. Me not being there, I mean."

"Used to it?"

"Yeah."

Aerith shot him one last look, before finally deciding that thinking about this matter too long would get her late to class. Despite the fact that she was worrying about him, she still doesn't know him enough to know why he's doing this, so she decided to let it go and hurry to homeroom.

"Okay, then I'll go first," Aerith said as she shouldered her bag. "Are you sure…?" she asked once more, motioning to the door. He nodded without saying a word. She became a bit reluctant to leave, but then she got a glance of the clock again, and decided to go.

"I-I'll see you then… Zack."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow, Aerith." He gave her a smile.

* * *

As the day passed on, the sun became brighter and hotter; students started to avoid the sun and would rather stay in the shade as the second break came around. Many of them took shelter in classrooms secretly (you're not allowed inside during break) or under the trees or in the hallways. Except a select few, a very special select few, who find sitting near the fountain in the middle of the courtyard very refreshing. Despite the hot weather, the SOLDIER group and their friends and fans would rather hang out in the open air rather than stay cooped up in the classroom. Very odd indeed.

Because Aerith can't stand hot weather (under the plate, no sunlight ever passes through, so this is a first for her) she decided to sit in the cafeteria with Tifa and Yuffie, who politely asked her whether she would like to hang out with them for the rest of the day. Naturally, she agreed. Cissnei and the rest of the student council were nowhere to be seen, anyways (in History, Reno had a group project with her and Tifa, but suddenly disappeared when the bell rang for second break), so she was more than happy to hang out with the two girls.

"WHY IS IT SO FREAKIN HOT!" Yuffie yelled out loud inside the cafeteria. If it wasn't for the very crowded cafeteria, Aerith would have forcefully covered her mouth because she practically shrieked.

"Calm down, Yuffie," Tifa said while she fanned herself with a _LOVELESS_ copy; apparently she just grabbed any random book in her bag. "Yelling about it won't make things better."

Yuffie practically banged her head on the table from sheer exhaustion. "I _hate_ heat," she grumbled.

"Me too," Aerith complied. The brunette was never subject to this kind of weather before.

"I feel like running." Yuffie started to stand up and pointed in the direction of the track field. "Glad we have P.E. next, or I'm going to have to skip school today."

Tifa snorted. "For you, maybe. I hate running more than I hate heat," she sneered. Aerith could tell she was tired of fanning herself with the hardcover book.

Yuffie sat back down. "Why, of all places, does the cafeteria have no AC! Every other room in this building does!"

Aerith squeaked to answer her question. "Maybe because it's directly connected to the courtyard?" she pointed towards the open wall that separates the cafeteria and the courtyard.

Yuffie cursed under her breath. "I hate the President. He has weird sense."

"Shush, Yuffie!" Tifa exclaimed. "Someone could hear you." She started looking around her and examined the whole cafeteria for eavesdroppers.

"The President?" Aerith asked them with raised eyebrows.

"The principal of the school," Yuffie answered her. "We call him President for some odd reason. Maybe because the student council calls him that, and they're the only ones who have ever seen him anyway."

Aerith recalled the conversation she had with Zack in the infirmary. He also mentioned 'President', but she was too preoccupied with the rumor he told her that she forgot to ask who the President was.

"He's hardly shown himself in public," Tifa continued, "which is why we're not allowed to talk about him. 'Fear of the unknown', you know that expression?" Aerith nodded. She was beginning to think this 'President' isn't what he seems.

Yuffie slammed the table loudly in frustration right afterwards, which shocked Aerith and Tifa. It also grabbed the attention of most of the people sitting around them; they stared at the three, annoyed. Aerith immediately looked down in embarrassment. Tifa and Yuffie looked like they didn't care.

"Just stop talking about him, and let me think more of ICE. Ice… cold… winter… snow… AC…" Yuffie started chanting. Tifa suppressed a laugh.

"If you want ice so much, go buy a cold drink from the vending machine, it's a good substitute," Tifa said, pointing to the vending machine near the entrance to the courtyard. There was a long line of students standing crowded around it. Yuffie gave a quick glance towards it, before cringing and shaking her head.

"Nah, I'd rather think about ice than go into the catastrophe over there." She started chanting incoherent words as her forehead stuck to the table like someone put glue on it.

Aerith eyed the crowd of students struggling to get to the vending machine. There were surprisingly a lot of them, very eager and thirsty. The brunette winced at the sight. It wasn't very pleasant, she could tell. No wonder Yuffie didn't want to go there, despite the fact she could probably jump on top of their heads and cut in front of everyone to if she had the strength. A few exhausted students gave up midway and started walking away from the vending machine, their faces grumpy and sweaty.

Two male students were in the lead, both shoving each other to see which one of them would get a drink first. It got so intense that the rest of them waiting in line steered clear from them. The two guys started pushing each other, until one knocked the other away from the vending machine and into the crowd behind him. The guy who got knocked away looked understandably pissed, and head-rammed the other guy in anger. Aerith had to stand up to see what was going on, since it was so intense. The two were locked in a wrestling match.

"Aerith? What are you doing?" she heard Tifa say, but she was too engrossed in the scene to answer her.

Just then, a familiar redhead pushed herself through the small crowd and tried breaking the two guys. "Break it up!" Aerith heard her scream. The brunette unconsciously moved out of her seat to see clearer and closer who the redhead was, and she was right; it was her cousin Cissnei.

The two guys were locked in struggle that Cissnei had to pull hard to break them free. "I said BREAK IT UP!" she shrieked. Aerith wanted to help her, but she was scared, because the two guys were big compared to her small stature.

Unconsciously, one of the guys pushed her cousin away – hard. Cissnei fell to the ground with a thud, her eyes spinning. The guy who pushed her continued in his struggle against the other, not even minding Cissnei. Aerith started to run towards her, worried, before something incredible happened.

The two guys wrestling and fighting before were, at once, separated forcefully by a pair of hands. The force was so great that the two fell backwards and landed on their face. A guy was standing in between where they had once fought; a handsome brunet with a glower on his face directed to the guy who pushed her cousin. Genesis.

Aerith and the rest of the spectators watched wide-eyed as Genesis moved to where Cissnei fell and hoisted her up as if she had no weight. The redhead's eyes were still spinning, but she was aware of him. "Wha-" she started to say.

"You okay?" he hissed. Cissnei was so appalled by his tone of voice that she just nodded at him. His faced softened, relieved, before he turned around and glared at the guy who pushed her.

He took out a drink from his pocket, brand new and still cold, and slammed it into the guy's face. The sound he made was something like plastic crunching against bone. Aerith's jaw dropped.

"Get out." His voice, directed to the guy, was deadly like poison. Both guys who previously fought scrambled away from the scene, along with most of the crowd. Now that most of the crowd was gone, she could see the rest of SOLDIER standing leisurely beside the vending machine, including Zack, just standing there as if the scene was something they saw every day. Sephiroth crossed his hands and his face smug, while Zack and Angeal just went on to use the vending machine. Aerith stared appalled seeing Zack there.

Genesis turned back towards Cissnei, who was still awestruck. They stayed like that for about a few seconds before Cissnei regained herself and retorted, "What the hell did you just- that- I can't believe you!" she yelled at him. Genesis didn't say a word.

Someone poked Aerith from behind, and she turned back, only to see Tifa and Yuffie, their faces worried. The brunette only motioned towards Genesis and Cissnei, telling them without words that the scene was regarding them. There was still a small crowd gathered around, eager to see the rest of the drama.

"You know you could have killed the guy?" Cissnei asked Genesis. He stared at her for a while before answering.

"It would be worth it," Genesis answered her, which surprised the redhead and probably everyone present at the scene. At that same moment, Aerith caught a glimpse of a blonde running and stopping to stand behind Sephiroth; Ada. She looked horrified, which was not a face someone would see casually from the stoic blonde.

Cissnei crossed her hands, her face frowning. She sighed deeply before saying, "… thank you."

Genesis looked at her, surprised. "No sweat."

Cissnei paused to stare at him for a second before she proceeded to walk off from the scene, breaking up the crowd as she did so. Genesis sighed looking at her walking away, before at once Ada linked her arm around his.

"You okay? What happened?" Ada asked him.

"Nothing," he answered her almost automatically.

Judging from Ada's expression, she knew that _that_ was not just 'nothing', but she kept her mouth shut. Aerith didn't know why she didn't just pry into her boyfriend for answers, but the brunette thought nothing more of it.

The small crowd was beginning to disperse, accompanied by whispers galore. Tifa nudged Aerith to follow her, to which she gladly complied. Aerith gave Zack a small last look, to which he returned with a shrug. He gave her a look that basically said, _I'll explain later._

Somehow, Aerith thought deep in her mind, she would probably be better off not knowing anything.


	11. Fitting In

It took Aerith, Yuffie and Tifa the whole break to slip through the crowd forming in the cafeteria, as the incident with Cissnei and Genesis before spread mouth to mouth like wildfire. The brunette could hear whispers about the two everywhere, even after the bell has rung for the last class of the day. Judging from the way the school talks about her cousin and Genesis, it seems that everyone can practically see that he likes her despite already having Ada by his side. It's just that maybe this would be the first time he's been open about it. Aerith felt unsure inside whether this was a good thing or not; Cissnei has never shown any interest in Genesis, at least from what she has seen. Was Ada just a second choice that he settled on because of something that happened with Cissnei? And if so, what happened?

So many questions that Aerith had, yet still, she has a bad feeling that if she knew the whole story, she would regret it. There was a loophole in the whole issue, one that she can't really pinpoint, that's suffocating her. It's slowly stressing her out, and she had a feeling it would strangle and kill her once she knew the truth.

Maybe it's because she thinks Zack had a big role in it.

Then again, maybe it was just her. She was never one to trust on women's intuition anyway.

The brunette silently pondered about the issue as her body absent-mindedly followed Yuffie and Tifa to the sports hall – a big building behind the school that serves for sports competition purposes – and arrived at the locker room, where they change clothes to their P.E uniform. A few of the girls were already inside changing, while some put their bags inside a locker at random. Apparently, it didn't matter which locker you used, since a few students shared lockers as well, and it seemed to follow one rule: first come, first serve.

The changing plus locker room was around the size of a bathhouse, just big enough to fit a class. The boys' changing room was on the other side of the sports hall, judging from a similar-looking door across the changing room. There were a lot of posters plastered on the walls, a lot of them about joining sport clubs after school. Graffiti colored the walls as well, although Aerith is appalled as to why girls would like to decorate their changing room wall with spray paint. Lots of the graffiti would certainly fit in the walls in the slums; it's that random and inartistic.

As Aerith observed this new surrounding, Yuffie rushed through a group of girls who were halfway changing in front of their locker and grabbed the locker next to theirs, throwing her bag inside with a dull _clang_. "Mine!" she said gleefully, much to the disappointment of the people standing beside her.

Tifa shook her head at Yuffie's rash behavior, but quickly let it pass. She then proceeded to put her bag inside the locker as well, after taking out a white shirt and track shorts from inside it. She motioned Aerith to do the same, which she did; but then, the brunette realized suddenly that she doesn't have the P.E uniform.

"Um…" she started to say.

"What is it?" Tifa asked.

"… I don't have my P.E uniform," the brunette said dejectedly.

Tifa formed a circle with her mouth, realizing the problem. She gave a glance at Yuffie, who was already changing into her uniform at an amazing speed.

"To be honest, Aerith, I don't have a solution to that," she frowned, "I'm sorry."

"Oh no, don't be." Aerith became flustered. "It's not your fault… I'll just ask the teacher to let me be excused."

Tifa's face hardened. "Mr. Barrett's not that lenient, you know."

Yuffie jumped in the conversation. "Go ask Cissnei, then!"

Aerith raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Yuffie pointed behind Aerith. "She's right over there with Navi. Go ask her, she might have your uniform. Crazy prepared, sometimes, she is."

Aerith looked behind her, and sure enough, Cissnei was there with Navi, changing clothes. The brunette wondered how she could have missed her cousin when she first came in. Well, that doesn't matter now.

"Thanks, guys," Aerith said to Yuffie and Tifa, then dashed towards her cousin.

Cissnei had just finished putting on her shirt when Aerith tapped her shoulder. The redhead turned, and her face instantly lit up when she saw the brunette. "Aerith!" she cried out in joy. "Turns out we have the same P.E class as well. That's good. Although the whole year gathers for the same P.E. class anyway, now that I think about it."

Aerith couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I'm glad too. I came in with Yuffie and Tifa."

"Oh really?" Cissnei said as she confirmed them by glancing past Aerith. "Hahah, I'm in the same P.E class as Yuffie again. What are the odds."

Aerith shook her head. "Never mind that. I need your help."

"With what?"

"I… have no P.E shirt."

Cissnei paused for a second before answering matter-of-factly. "Yes you do."

Aerith reconfirmed her statement with hand gestures. "I don't have it, meaning that I didn't bring it from home. We went to school separately earlier, so… yeah."

Cissnei nodded. "I know that. Has anyone ever told you that your beloved cousin is always prepared?" she grinned.

Aerith sighed. "Crazy prepared," she said, repeating Yuffie's words.

Cissnei nodded. "That's right," she said as she put her hands on her hips. "Wait a minute, I'll go get my bag."

As Cissnei dashed past her and rushed to her locker, Aerith noticed Navi who finished wearing her P.E attire. She actually looked a lot friendlier outside of her school uniform, although she still retained a bit of distance in the way her face conveyed her emotions. Her black, bristled hair now had a white headband nudged in the middle of it, and it made her look a lot childish than she was supposed to; a lot different than her twin brother, who looks a lot more mature.

Navi acknowledged Aerith by nodding slightly in her direction. Aerith did the same. There was a moment of awkward silence before Navi proceeded to sit down on the bench behind her and motioned Aerith to do the same. The brunette proceeded to sit in the vacant seat beside her.

Navi was the one to start the conversation. "So, how are you finding the school?" she asked her.

"O-oh, I'm quite enjoying myself," Aerith answered. She fiddled with her fingers to try and ease the tension in her head.

Navi smiled. "That's good. Cissnei's been doing a lot of preparations just to get you up and ready when you start school. She's been working her butt off during the last few weeks of summer just so that you can fit in relatively at ease here, without worries."

Aerith sighed. "I know that. And I'm really thankful."

"That, and she had pre-school student council duties," she continued, "which we had a workload of. I guess what you said was right; Cissnei's really crazy-prepared. Nice definition of her, how come I hadn't thought of that?"

Aerith just chuckled in response. She really didn't expect Navi to blabber a lot all the while able to maintain an extremely polite tone. The first impression she ever had of her was just polite; now, turns out she's talkative and gracious.

Navi dragged out the conversation more. "So, are you good at sports? Any kind at all?"

Aerith had to think for a second before answering her. "I honestly don't know," she shrugged.

Navi smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find a suitable sport for your build and capacity."

The brunette nodded. The conversation ended then and there after the two realized that Cissnei has returned with a P.E. bag in hand, no doubt containing Aerith's clothes.

"Here you go," the redhead said as she thrust the bag into her cousin's lap. "I double-checked it before I packed; it's your size. Which, really, isn't that hard to guess." Cissnei started eyeing Aerith's body, top to bottom. "How can someone be that small? Seriously."

Aerith pouted. "It's not like I chose to be this way."

Cissnei laughed. "God forbid you have muscles, my dear cousin." Navi chuckled politely in the background.

Aerith snorted. "I may not have the brains and brawns like you, but I survived _over there_ for so long, if you know what I mean." She lowered into a whisper, but not so low that Navi could still hear. Naturally, Navi gave an appropriate confused look.

Cissnei just shrugged off the statement. "Go and change, you've got 2 minutes." Aerith nodded and dashed away towards Yuffie and Tifa, up and ready to change.

* * *

Aerith was one of the last to come out of the changing room, since it took a while for her to even try on her P.E. clothes. They were quite simple – a white sweatshirt with short pants – but it was taking off her school uniform that took most of the time. Yuffie was, obviously, the first to go out; Tifa was polite enough to wait for Aerith. Thankfully, they weren't the last to come out, as three other girls were still fiddling with their hair the moment they got out the changing room. Aerith heard them murmur some stuff about 'looking good in front of the guys' – to which Tifa deadpanned by whispering to Aerith that their hair won't do them any justice.

When they both started walking towards the field, a crowd had already gathered in front of a tall, muscular black man with arms so ripped they could as well break bones. He had his hands crossed, a stern look on his face and a whistle around his neck. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and gym shorts. His muscles were so obvious that one would be dumb to even cross him. One would be even dumber to not realize that this was their P.E. teacher, which was what Aerith instantly recognized.

The man glared at their way before Tifa caught the message and started to pull Aerith to walk faster. "Come on! He hates it when students are tardy." Her voice was urgent, so Aerith picked up the pace. Before she knew it, she was already standing within the crowd, taking slow, steady breaths, while Tifa followed soon behind, panting away. She looked at Aerith incredulously.

"What's wrong?" Aerith asked her.

"You… has anyone ever told you you're really light on your feet?" Tifa said in amazement.

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "Really now?"

Tifa nodded, before giving a warning signal to zip it and face the teacher's way.

The teacher was looking in their direction now, his face not amused. His hands were still crossed, and Aerith realized that one of them was an artificial hand made out of metal. She gapped at it before he started to talk.

"Is there any more, Tifa?" His gruff, deep voice boomed at Aerith's friend.

"Y-Yes, Mr. Barrett," Tifa answered. "Three."

He grunted, apparently very impatient. "How about the guys?" Reno?" he asked as he turned towards the male students.

Aerith glanced over to see that Reno has just joined the crowd as well, along with a bald guy with sunglasses that seemed a bit older than the rest of the year. "Nope, not that I know of," Reno answered him swiftly.

"Not that you know of, huh… WELL THEN!" His voice suddenly boomed, which made Aerith jump in fright. "We'll start without those… gah." He spat on the ground. Aerith had a feeling he was about to utter something else entirely. "We're going to start on the track field today, as you can see," Mr. Barrett announced. Students groaned here and there. "SHUT UP!" He boomed again. "I don't want any wimps today. Right, let's see if I got a record of your 100-metre dashes from last year…"

He started towards the clipboard that he was actually holding with his metal hand, which Aerith didn't notice at first. He gave a smirk after giving it a few glances. "Well, girls' record is still held by Yuffie and Cissnei, naturally," he grunted. "As for the guys… no surprise there, there's around five of you, and all from the countryside. Backwater experts," he murmured, "go figure." Aerith noticed that some of the guys exchanged punches. At the same moment, she noticed Zack, standing in almost the middle of the crowd, giving a high-five to a guy she didn't know.

"Right, let's start. We'll start with the girls. Any new students here?" He grunted aloud.

Before Aerith could react, Yuffie already pointed her out for her, being in the front. "Yeah, we've got one," she said, while grabbing Aerith's hand suddenly and raised it up in the air. "Her," Yuffie beamed.

"Eh, ah… uh?" Aerith involuntarily let out; she hasn't caught grasp of the situation yet.

"PERFECT!" Mr. Barrett boomed again, and once again, Aerith was so startled that she forcefully let Yuffie's hands go. "Come here," he motioned, and Aerith almost robot-walked towards his way. She felt really embarrassed, being pointed out that she's the new one.

After she stood by his side, she realized just how small she was; she barely hit his shoulder in height. He nodded towards her, and she wasn't sure whether it was a reassurance or just an approval. "Right. How about the guys?"

Around two of them walked towards Mr. Barrett. Aerith was quite surprised that she wasn't the only new kid, despite being the only girl. Knowing that made her heart calm down just a little.

"Okay then," he clicked his pen. "Name?" he asked all three of them.

"Kain," one answered.

"Nero."

"Aerith."

"Come again?" Mr. Barrett asked the brunette. Aerith almost forgot that her name was not that easy to write.

"Aerith," she repeated. "A-E-R-I-T-H. Aerith."

"Right," he said as he finished writing her name. "What an uncommon name. Last name?" He didn't notice Aerith's flush of embarrassment as he said that.

"Highwind," Kain said.

"the Sable," Nero answered.

Both Aerith and Mr. Barrett did a double-take. "the Sable."

"Yeah," Nero said matter-of-factly. "What?"

Mr. Barrett paused before saying anything. Aerith could even hear his head whirring.

"Forreal?" Mr. Barrett asked him again.

Silence ensued as Nero the Sable crossed his hands in disapproval.

"Right, never mind." Mr. Barrett finished writing his name quickly. "And yours?" he turned to Aerith.

"Gainsborough," she answered. "Um, before you say anything, can I just write it?"

"Yes please," Mr. Barrett said, confusion written all over his face. As he handed the clipboard for Aerith to write, he continued on with the class. "Right, the rest of you, go to your usual places. Girls, you better get ready, because you're on first." He pointed to two people. "Yuffie, Cissnei, if you could."

As the rest of the group moved towards the start of the track field on the far-left side, Aerith heard Nero mutter curses under his breath. Kain moved towards Aerith as she finished off. "Can I see that?" he pointed at the clipboard.

"Oh, yeah, sure," the brunette said as she handed it over. Kain took a quick glance at it, and turned to Nero.

"Dude, you do realize that your name means Black the Black?" Kain said to him with a complete straight face. Nero's face wasn't pleased as the three of them walked towards the rest of the group. Aerith had to try hard and not laugh at Kain's comment.

"Right, er… Aerith!" Mr. Barrett called out as they approached. "Girl's side, please." He pointed to his left, to which Aerith moved towards to stand between Cissnei and Yuffie.

"Have you ever heard of him? That Nero dude, I mean," Yuffie whispered to both Cissnei and Aerith after she joined them. The brunette just shrugged, while Cissnei gave her a funny look.

"Being in the student council lets you in on things," Cissnei whispered back.

Aerith glanced at her opposite side, where most of the male students were taking a breather. She couldn't help but notice Zack stretching his legs and arms to prepare himself, flexing his toned muscles. Moments later, their eyes met – before, this would have made her look away, but now she's gotten used to it – and they shared a small smile. Her heart did a back-flip at the sight of his.

What took her out of that brief dreamland was Mr. Barrett's bark. "OKAY THEN!" He examined his clipboard once more. "I'll go by alphabetical order, guys- I mean, girls." He ran a finger through the sheet of paper with his metal hand. "The following six names I call out are gonna race the 100-metre dash. Got it?" There were nods and murmurs. "Rude over there's gonna time you guys." He pointed at the end of the track, where the same bald guy that was with Reno earlier was holding a stopwatch.

"Alright then. We'll start from…"

Yuffie pouted. "Damn, that means I won't be able to race you!" she pointed at Cissnei.

Cissnei laughed. "Give it a rest, Yuffie. We can always do it next time."

Aerith could still hear Mr. Barrett's voice over their banter. "…-lia, Bonnie, Cissnei…"

Her ears perked. "Oh wait, he called your name," Aerith said to Cissnei.

"Yeah, I know," her cousin responded. "Everyone by now should know the alphabetical order." She turned back to continue her conversation with Yuffie, while Aerith listened in more.

"…Dira, Claire, and… oh. Aerith too." Mr. Barrett finished. "Right, go, six of you. On the starting line."

Aerith stared at her teacher in disbelief.

"Wow, going off the bat already." Yuffie voiced out her thoughts exactly.

Aerith's stomach churned. She felt like her insides were flipping out. This was her first P.E. lesson (in her whole life, mind) and she already has to go against her cousin. She looked at Cissnei for support, but she just gave her an apologetic smile from the starting line.

"Aerith! Go, go! I haven't got all day!" Mr. Barrett ordered. At that point she realized that she was the only one not ready behind the starting line yet. Sighing dejectedly, she took her place beside her cousin, who was stretching her arms and legs.

_Okay, so how does this go again? We used to have races all the time for fun. I remember that little kid teaching me how to start, he learned it from his father… okay, um, so I crouch down? Yeah, that's right. Left foot forward, right foot balance, right knee beside left foot. Two hands steady in front… then what?_ As Aerith was recalling her experience in running etiquettes, Cissnei was doing the exact same pose beside her a meter to her right. Her face was looking straight forward, dead serious. Aerith mimicked her pose.

"READY…" Mr. Barrett boomed, giving the signal. "SET…" all six raised their lower body.

"GO!"

Aerith no longer remembers what happened after that. All she did was mad-dash towards the finish line at the word 'go', not caring about anything else. She felt the wind breeze through her body and resistance trying to pull her back, and her ears pounding with the sound of her heart beating.

Before she knew it, she was at the finish line, breathing and panting, her lungs pleading for oxygen. Blood was drumming in her ears. Despite all that, however, she felt really exhilarated. She turned around to see the other contestants and her cousin, seeing how it turned out. They were all panting and heaving too, but she could see two of the girls staring at her in amazement.

She glanced at Rude, who was holding the stopwatch, and he was staring at her too. His jaw was dropped, presumably at her. She gave him a questioning look.

She felt two hands grab her, and Aerith saw that it was Cissnei. "YOU… were incredible!" she said at her, joy overflowing in her voice.

"Huh?" Aerith asked her, confused. Both of their faces were red and sweaty, and they were both heaving. Blood was drumming so loudly in her ears that she questioned what she just heard.

"How did you do that? Wow, that was incredible. In mere seconds you were already 2 meters ahead of me. I actually had difficulties catching up." Cissnei beamed.

Aerith twitched. "Come again?"

Cissnei shook her. "The dash! Who knew!" she started laughing and hugged her cousin. "My cousin, Aerith Gainsborough, is the fastest girl in our year." She slapped her hand on the back of a stunned Aerith. The brunette was stoned.

She observed the rest of the girls. All of them were heaving and one of them, whose name she forgot, gave her a smile and a thumbs-up. Rude, who moved back to Mr. Barrett to report the timings, was having a deep conversation with the teacher. She looked over to the crowd of students, and Yuffie and Tifa were staring at her in disbelief. She could see the twins, Navi and Tristan, moving over behind Reno, who was peeking at the scores. Judging from his face, Aerith must have done something unbelievable.

Scanning the crowd again, she met eyes with Zack once more. His face was absolutely priceless; he looked completely appalled, complete with jaw drop. Aerith bit her lip so that she wouldn't have to blush fiercely at his reaction. Despite that, her stomach had butterflies. She wasn't sure whether she should be happy with his attention, or embarrassed by it.

"HAHAHA!" Mr. Barrett suddenly guffawed. "BRILLIANT!" He ran towards Aerith and Cissnei, and grabbed the former's shoulders. "You beat Cissnei's AND Yuffie's record by a mile! Just. Effing. Brilliant." Aerith's jaw dropped at the language, and Cissnei even had to point it out to him by saying "SIR!" in a warning tone.

"I won't forget you, kiddo," he said as he ruffled her hair with his metal arm. Aerith had to admit, she expected it to be painful, but turns out it felt the same like a normal hand.

After a second, the realization finally sunk in as Cissnei smiled her way. She finally found something she excelled in alone, and that something she gained while surviving down in the slums. Down there, sometimes you gotta be fast in avoiding unwanted people or suspicious, persistent vendors. Here, she can run freely without worries, not caring who she's chasing or what she's running from. She couldn't help but smile as she thought about it; she can finally feel like she fits in.

* * *

The next morning, Aerith was greeted by a stern Zack as they met with each other again in the infirmary before homeroom. She gave him a look. "You okay?"

He crossed his arms. "You never told me that you were good at running." Zack was tilting his head, as if he was trying to figure out something.

She shook her head. "I didn't, either," she responded. "I just found out yesterday as well." She couldn't help but smile.

"How can you not know your own talents?" Zack asked.

Aerith shrugged. "I'm not very good with finding that out."

Zack laughed, which, once again, was music to her ears. Her heart did a somersault.

"It's as if I find more things to know about you every day." Zack jumped off the bed he was laying down in earlier. Aerith took her place beside the window, where the plant that grabbed her attention yesterday sat squarely taking in every air it could.

She hasn't forgotten about the incident yesterday with Genesis and Cissnei, and it has been occupying her mind ever since she got home with Cissnei yesterday. So many questions she wanted to ask her cousin, but she thought that it would be rude to just barge in her business when it might be something that she doesn't want to talk about. Since Zack said (or mouthed) to her that he would explain, she waited until this moment to have all her suspicions confirmed.

"So, er…" she started. "about yesterday…"

Zack turned to her. "Yesterday?"

She nodded. "Genesis? I was too afraid to ask Cissnei, and you said you would explain, so…"

"Oh, right. That." Zack sat back down on the bed and took a deep breath. "You should take a seat."

Aerith started looking around for a stool or a chair to grab and sit in, but Zack patted the empty space in the bed beside him. "I meant here, Aerith," he chuckled.

Her face reddened. She didn't say a word and proceeded to sit on the bed beside him.

Zack looked at her for a second before he continued. "Is your face… red?" he smirked.

Aerith thought it wasn't possible for her face to get even redder. "Just tell me already!" she snapped.

He threw his hands up in the air. "Fine, fine! But it's a long story. And don't take my word for it; this was what happened from my point of view." He sat facing her. "Ready?"

She took in a deep breath and nodded.

"In exchange," Zack said, "I want you to tell me more about you. That mad dash yesterday was incredible." He gave her a thumbs up.

"Deal," Aerith nodded swiftly, not forgetting to smile.

* * *

_A/N: IT'S FINALLY HERE! I know that it's pretty late, but here it is. apparently this was the fastest I could manage. I don't think you guys should expect an update before 2011, but I hope I can at least do one more before the New Years. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! oh and, since Dissidia Duodecim is coming out soon (okay fine, maybe not so soon, but) I guess I could give a cameo to Kain Highwind. really just shameless promoting of the game from my part, haha.  
well, see you soon!_


	12. Not the Whole Truth

_A/N: hey guys! I know it's been a long time since I've updated. Real life has finally caught up to me, and my exams are coming up. So don't expect any updates before the summer holidays, okay? But once it does come, I'll have my plot bunnies dancing and have this fic raring and ready to go. so, that's it, and enjoy the chapter._

* * *

"Okay then," Zack sighed. "Here goes."

The silence that followed was tense – at least, it was for Aerith – as Zack gathered his wits to tell his side of the story. Of course, not forgetting the warning he gave her that his viewpoint was probably not the whole truth, she was still frightened. Frightened to know the whole truth, yet she knew that if she doesn't try to find out what in the world is going on, the curiosity will eat her inside.

_Maybe it's better to not know the whole truth and stop here,_ she thought, deep in her mind. However, her mind seems to be at war with this issue. She decided to just sit and listen.

Zack started. "Last year, both of us were just freshmen in this school. It might be surprising, considering the size of the school, but Finale doesn't have a junior high. So we had to transfer from our old school to here. Frankly speaking, I'm the only SOLDIER that didn't come from a junior high around here," he pointed out.

Aerith slowly nodded. "So you and Cissnei were from the same junior high?" she asked.

"Sort of," Zack shrugged. "I didn't know her much. She transferred in third year of junior high and we never got to talk much. I didn't even notice her before we both arrived in this school as freshmen. Of course, there were others from our old school that came here, but there weren't much since our junior high was far away. So we stuck out like a sore thumb, the freshmen that came here from my school."

Aerith put the pieces together. "So you two basically became friends after moving here."

Zack laughed. "Wait, I'm getting there," he said while adjusting his seating position to properly face Aerith. "You're impatient, aren't you?"

She could feel her cheeks burning. "Go on!" she urged him.

"Okay, okay," Zack grinned. "I knew Finale from Angeal. We were neighbors, before he moved out just recently. He basically helped me with all the admission business to this school. As you can see, this school's pretty luxurious. I'm surprised that my parents had the money to allow me to come here. Anyway, Cissnei and I were kinda dumped together in the same class. Mr. Valentine's class," he said.

Aerith raised an eyebrow. "But I thought Cissnei's homeroom teacher was Mr. Barrett?"

Zack nodded. "Yes, but at first, she was with me. With us, if she stayed in his class for another year. Each year we change classes, so yeah," he said matter-of-factly.

"Anyway," he continued, "she was the only one I knew in the class. I really thought the other students were trying to shut us out because our junior high wasn't the most prestigious of places. Later on I found out that wasn't the case, but until then, I got to know her. We were a bit awkward at first, but a month passed by, then two… and we became really good friends."

"We basically hung out together a lot. Despite the fact that we also had other friends, we were close, Cissnei and I. Lots of people teased that we were dating," Zack laughed. Aerith blinked.

Zack took notice of her look. "B-but, we weren't, of course," he elaborated.

Aerith rubbed her chin. "Good, because then if you want to get near Cissnei, you'll have to go over my dead body first," she deadpanned.

Zack stared. "So that's what you were thinking? I'm a bit disappointed…" he trailed off.

Aerith was taken aback. "Why?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "Never mind," he said while raising his palm to her. "Anyway, gradually I started introducing her to Angeal. They instantly became friends. Kinda made me wonder about it. Angeal was already a member of SOLDIER, so introducing Cissnei to him at the time was kinda dangerous. But since everyone thought we were dating, his fans apparently didn't mind," Zack shrugged.

Aerith stopped him. "Wait. 'Dangerous'? Why?"

Zack stared briefly at her before continuing. "Fans of SOLDIER are… a bit fanatic," he answered. "One girl gets treated special, it'll unleash a hell of fury."

Aerith thought about it for a second. "Oookay… er, go on."

He continued. "So Cissnei, Angeal and I became good friends. We were kind of the popular trio, always hanging out together. The school knew me and Cissnei that way, basically. Doesn't help that she's beautiful and also pretty much a brainiac. The guys in the school fall head over heels for her after three months of freshman year."

Zack's voice changed slightly. "That's also how she got Genesis' attention."

Aerith gulped. Here it comes, she screamed in her head.

"The dude's a Casanova," Zack said. "He can't help hitting on pretty girls. His fans have apparently gotten used to this, so they didn't mind. The surprising part is, he never asked Cissnei out. Not even once." Aerith's jaw dropped. "Sure, Angeal hangs out with both of us a lot, and sometimes Genesis tags along just for fun, but I was beginning to suspect something. Since I'm good friends with Angeal, he sometimes talks about his childhood friend Genesis. It's kind of impossible for someone like him to just pass off Cissnei, according to Angeal's stories about him."

"Later on, Genesis came more frequently to our outings. Eventually, Cissnei and I got used to his company. Of course, those two never stop bickering, it's mind-boggling," Zack rolled his eyes. "They never agree on one thing. Angeal and I are always caught in the crossfire. I accepted it as good, clean fun, but Angeal was suspecting something more."

Aerith voiced her thoughts aloud. "It isn't like the usual Genesis?" she asked, taking a wild guess.

"Bingo," Zack said. "According to Angeal, Genesis never tries to infuriate a girl before. He always treats them like a princess, but apparently he treats Cissnei way, way differently." Zack took a deep breath.

"I got closer to both Angeal and Genesis due to our hang-outs, and so did Cissnei. Eventually, their nonstop bickering reached school grounds. They were famous for it; Cissnei, the hot-blooded beauty, the only one capable of making Genesis furious. Even his fans were surprised," Zack crossed his hands while remembering, "because they have never seen their beloved Genesis that way. He changes 180 degrees when he talks to Cissnei than any other girl."

"As the second half of the year passed by, I was eventually 'recruited' into SOLDIER," Zack grinned. "Sephiroth took notice of my skills and decided to let me in."

Aerith raised an eyebrow. "There are requirements? I thought SOLDIER was kinda like a fan-chosen thing," she asked.

Zack smirked. "You thought Cissnei was the only one garnering attention from the past half-year? I've got my share of admirers." He gave her a killer smile. Almost instantly, Aerith went red like a lobster.

Zack continued on as if nothing had happened. "Cissnei congratulated me, of course. We planned to have cake at her house and just watch movies for celebration. She invited Angeal, and well… Genesis decided to tag along again. She knew this would happen, so she brought another girl in, because having a celebration with three guys and one girl in her house would make things a bit awkward. Cissnei's parents also would've been furious, so she invited another girl, in the same year as Genesis and Angeal; Ada."

Aerith's eyes widened. She had a bad feeling to where this is going.

"I don't know how she knew about Ada. I didn't even know they were friends. Ada was known in school as the ice queen, while Cissnei was the hot-blooded freshman. They're total opposites, yet they know each other fairly well. I then found out Cissnei volunteered a lot in student council work over the past weeks, and that's how they knew each other. I was mad at her for inviting a complete stranger to a celebration party meant for me, but she practically begged me to forgive her."

Aerith stopped him again. "And did you forgive her?"

Zack nodded. "Naturally. She begged! I would've been punched by her if it was otherwise."

Aerith laughed. "So a SOLDIER like you can't handle a punch from a girl?"

Zack smiled. "Well, I can't use my full power on her, can I?"

The statement made Aerith frozen for a split second. She always forgot that there should be more than one reason why SOLDIER is named SOLDIER. Sephiroth acknowledged Zack's 'skills'… which probably meant more than just athletic capabilities. She became genuinely frightened, but quickly erased any of that indication on her face.

He continued, not noticing Aerith's inner turmoil. "So we started the party at Cissnei's house. Ada did turn up, but she didn't seem to like it as much as I did. We kept as much distance we could between us; I don't think I even remember talking to her.

"Of course, Cissnei tried hard to become the bridge between us. Whenever there was a conversation, she tried to include Ada. Now that I think about it, it must've been hard. I was pretty hostile." Zack scratched his head, looking guilty.

Aerith chimed in. "Well, you couldn't help it," she said in a small voice. "You didn't know her."

"True," he agreed. "But I could have been a little more supportive. If I was, maybe Genesis and she wouldn't have had to get to know each other."

Aerith clamped her mouth. She took a sharp intake of breath.

"Since I wasn't being very friendly to Ada, and I could tell Cissnei was about to blow up – Genesis saved the day by being quite nice to Ada. They looked like they've been friends for years. And true to Angeal's words, he treated Ada like a princess. I was relieved, to be honest. I couldn't stand the pressure.

"After that, we had a great time. Although I didn't communicate at all with Ada, with Genesis being the bridge it became much better. We ate popcorn, watched movies, and er, I think we were supposed to have cake."

The brunette held up her hand. "Wait, 'supposed to'?"

Zack's face grew solemn. "Yeah." He started shifting uncomfortably. "In the middle of this one movie – I forgot what it was, really – Cissnei suddenly jumped up from the couch and said that she forgot to get the cake she ordered. Must've been the movie; I think the main characters were eating this cake?"

A laugh escaped from Aerith. "Typical Cissnei," she giggled. But when Zack had no reaction, her smile faltered.

"Since she insisted on going on alone to the cake shop to get her order, we all decided to tag along since it was already dark. It's pretty dangerous here at night, and besides, Genesis was hell-bent on going," Zack said. His face grew sullen after each sentence.

A pause. Then Zack continued, "We walked. The store wasn't that far, and besides, we walk all the time. It was already dark, but since the Sector never sleeps, it was crowded. The cake shop was right around the corner. Genesis knew where it was and knew a shortcut on the way there, so Cissnei decided not to take the usual route. We were short on time, and I think Ada had something to do. She looked like she was in a hurry."

Aerith put her hand on her chin. "Must've been some cake shop," she wondered aloud.

Zack smiled, but it was clearly forced. "Anyway, we went through the large alleyway behind the main road. There were hardly any lights, but we didn't care. We had to do it quietly though, because alleyways aren't the exact places where you would want to draw attention upon yourself, if you know what I mean."

She nodded in understanding. The slums where she came from were full of them. They're the ones who taught her how to run, taught her not to feel trapped. "And?" she asked.

Zack didn't respond. He put a hand on his forehead, obscuring his eyes, and Aerith could see a faint smile appear on his mouth. It wasn't those subdued, happy smiles; his was painful to see. Aerith didn't say a word. Rather, she was too scared to say anything. These next lines of the story will surely eat at her for the rest of her life.

She broke the silence first. "Zack, if you don't want to continue-"

The bell for homeroom cut her off mid-sentence. She sat upright in a jolt, and slid down quickly from the bed where she sat. Before she could instinctively reach for her bag, Zack grabbed her hand from behind and forcefully turned her whole body around, facing him. Their eyes met again.

"No. I need you to hear this," he said. His grip on her hand tightened.

She instantly became flustered. "I-If you say so," she managed to say.

He let go, but Aerith opted to stay standing; she doesn't think her heart can handle it if she sat beside him again.

"… We SOLDIERs aren't without enemies. We may be on bad terms with the student council, but they're not wholly detestable. We don't go picking fights with them whenever we can. Since this school is well-known around the area, it's natural SOLDIER is too.

"We have enemies, outside of school. But the biggest gang that ever challenged us would be AVALANCHE. They may lay low, but their numbers are great. The underground areas of Sector 8 are under their wing. We're mortal enemies." Zack crossed his hands.

Aerith squeaked. "A-AVALANCHE?" she couldn't believe her ears.

"Yeah," Zack said. "You've heard of them?"

_Yes_, Aerith wanted to scream at him, but decided against it. "No," she lied. "Never heard of them."

"Good," Zack said. "I don't want you going anywhere near them."

Aerith nodded involuntarily. She knew that already.

Zack continued. "They were there. That night, in the alleyway, when we were conveniently crossing it."

Aerith swore she could feel her heart stop beating. Her hands were shaking, but she clenched them without Zack noticing.

"Their numbers were greater than us. Although Genesis, Angeal and I were more than a match for them, their numbers were greater. And… they had potential hostages." Zack clenched his hands together, his face anguished.

"Potential hostages?" Aerith asked. "Who-" she stopped when she realized.

Zack looked up. "I guess now you can fit the pieces in together." He gave her a small smile, but his eyes were so full of pain that even Aerith felt it.

Aerith said it in a whisper. "Cissnei… she- was she-?"

Zack cut her off. "Angeal and Genesis fought as hard as ever. They knew the situation was bad. I tried protecting Cissnei and Ada. Ada, turns out, could do well with a metal pipe. Cissnei defended herself with the little martial arts training she picked up from me. They were doing so well, I let my guard down and charged at their leader, leaving them alone. Before I could even reach him, Cissnei was screaming behind me, and- and-"

Aerith didn't want to hear the rest, and she knew Zack didn't want to either. Nonetheless, he did.

"Angeal and Genesis couldn't make it in time. Cissnei angered the worst and the biggest guy of the bunch. The type that's not afraid to harm women. He- he grabbed her by the collar and threw her across the alleyway. She hit the garbage cans – hard." Zack's hands were as white as sheet.

"Genesis went berserk. He charged at anyone – anything – and basically pummeled the group that went for Cissnei and Ada. He made sure he broke every bone in the big guy's body. Ada was so scared that she ran out the alleyway. I – I was so mad, I nearly killed the leader. By the time we took out the last of them, Ada ran away, and Cissnei was unconscious."

"Angeal went and got her out. She- her head was bleeding like mad, we knew it was a severe concussion. Genesis basically carried her on his back and ran like mad towards the nearest hospital. She was- she was losing a lot of blood…" He trailed off.

Aerith let go of the breath she didn't realize she was holding.

Zack unclenched his hands, but they were still white. "When we reached the hospital, she was immediately put into the ICU. We didn't leave unscathed either – bruises and all – but we didn't care. Cissnei – she was dying. Because of us."

Silence followed his sentence. The air went tense. Aerith felt her knees buckle; she fell onto the ground, not even bothering to stop herself from falling.

Zack reacted almost immediately. "Aerith! Are you okay?" He knelt beside her and grabbed her shoulders. She could hear his voice shake slightly, although she wasn't sure because her whole body was shaking.

"I-I'm fine," she lied.

Zack swore under his breath. "Don't give me that crap. Here, stand up." He basically hoisted her up with relatively little strength and sat her on the bed. He gave her a long, hard look. "I'll get you water," he concluded. Aerith only nodded.

While Zack left to get water from the dispenser, Aerith took long, slow breaths. She could feel herself shaking uncontrollably. She hadn't felt this broken ever since her mother died. To think that Cissnei almost went through the same ordeal her mother did… it was too much for her.

AVALANCHE. Aerith despised them.

"Here," Zack said, handing her a glass of water. She took it and gave it a short sip. Zack frowned. "Drink more, Aerith. You're shaking." She was too shell-shocked to disobey, so she complied. She drank the whole glass in one shot. She let out a deep breath soon afterwards.

"I'm sorry," Zack said.

Aerith looked at him. "Why are you apologizing?"

Zack sat on the bed beside her. "I think this was too much for you."

She shook her head. "No. Just continue. It's okay. Really," Aerith said, trying to convince him. Or was she really trying to convince herself? She didn't know.

Zack looked uneasy. "Are you sure?"

She nodded. Her body gave her a brief shudder, but it quickly passed. Zack still looked unsure, but he continued on anyway.

"We called in her parents. They looked really stressed out from work, and hearing that their daughter was admitted to the hospital… I think it was too much for her mom. She fainted. Her dad basically gave us a verbal beatdown, despite our continuous apologies. Angeal, being the calmest out of all of us, properly explained to them. Her dad calmed down a lot more after that, but he requested one thing from us."

Aerith said, "Uncle Ralph? What did he say?"

"That we would promise to never hang out with Cissnei again," Zack said.

"What?" she gasped out.

Zack looked at her. "Didn't you find it weird that at the beginning of this story, Cissnei was really close with us and now it looks like we want to rip each other's throats out?"

Aerith put a hand to her chin. "I hadn't thought of that."

Zack sighed. "She was in that hospital for two months. Her dad did let us visit her though. Genesis told me that it would probably have been better if he never let us. Seeing her comatose of the hospital bed… every time we see it, it's like a punch in the gut. When you think that we were the one responsible for what happened, it's just too much. I think her dad did that on purpose. He let us visit her, but only during the time she was admitted. I found it harsh, but I knew I deserved it."

Aerith looked down. She didn't know what to say.

"Genesis visited her whenever he could. Almost every day after school, he would just come to the hospital and sit beside her bed. I honestly think he was hoping that she would wake up whenever he came, but to find it come crashing down when he finds her still in a coma. I came in frequently too, but not as much as he did. I think Angeal visited too, and even Sephiroth came once in a while. It was like that for two months. Every day, even weekends, Genesis would just come and watch her sleep."

Zack closed his eyes and clenched his hands. "I think he felt the most guilt. He was the one who suggested going through that alleyway. Angeal and I insisted that we should share the blame together, but he wouldn't listen. He kept beating himself over it for two months. It was really bad. It's like his mentality just… snapped," he explained. "He kept picking fights here and there. It's like he was punishing himself."

Aerith thought about how she felt when her mother died. She felt anguished, heartbroken, and useless; because she was unable to protect her. Absolutely nothing she did eased the pain. "I can sympathize with him," she said.

Zack looked at her. "Really?"

She nodded. "But that's… another story."

There must have been something on Aerith's face, because Zack frowned after he gave her a hard look. "Sorry this story got so depressing. I just thought… since you wanted to know so badly…"

She shook her head. "No. It's okay. I think I can fit in the pieces now."

"So you don't want to know what happens next?" he asked.

"Of course I do," she answered. "Go on."

Zack took a deep breath and continued, "Two months. Almost every day, he visited her. And one day… she woke up."

Aerith became wide-eyed. "Just like that?"

Zack held up a hand. "There's more. When she woke up… she forgot everything."

The message took a while to sink in. When it did, Aerith took a sharp intake of breath. "No way," she managed to choke out.

"I know," he gave her a forced laugh. "Hard to believe, isn't it? After all we've been through. She _did_ recognize us, though she didn't know why. It took all she had to just remember everyone's names."

Aerith looked down. "Cissnei…"

"Genesis was devastated though. He stopped seeing her for about a week. Her amnesia just added up to the list of guilt he made for himself. He picked a fight on a bad day, and basically got admitted into the same hospital Cissnei did. Just a few broken bones, but enough to send him there."

"Although… I think that became a stroke of luck for him, in my opinion. His room was right beside Cissnei's. She recognized him from the first day she woke up, so apparently she was the first to 'visit'. They became good friends after that, but somehow the student council was really tight on her watch during this time, so I don't know details."

Aerith held up a hand to stop him. "Wait. How did the student council get into this?"

Zack shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I told you, my side of the story is not the whole story. But I do remember one thing; Ada came and visited Genesis while Cissnei was there, and… well, he wouldn't tell me what happened. Next thing I knew, a week later, they were dating. It was a sensation at school; Genesis, the SOLDIER, dating a student council member, the ice queen Ada."

"What? Just like that?"

"Yeah," Zack said. "I'm pretty sure it's more complicated than that. But ever since then, Cissnei wouldn't greet me at school like she normally did. After she got discharged from the hospital, nothing was ever the same."

"O-oh," was all Aerith could say.

As if on cue, the bell rang, signaling the start of the first lesson. Aerith looked at the watch. She could hear student raring a ready to go and move classes. She grabbed her bag on the floor after sliding off the bed where she previously sat, and grabbed her timetable. She went through it quickly with her finger.

"I guess that's it," Zack said from behind her.

"Huh? Oh, right." Aerith stood up to face him. "Thank you."

He shook his head. "It's okay. I needed that off my back for six months now." He jumped off the bed. "Just… don't tell Cissnei. She's better off not knowing anything."

Aerith nodded. "Okay. But Zack?"

"Yeah?" he answered her while slinging his bag onto his shoulder.

"Are you sure that Cissnei still forgot everything?"

He stared at her, and she could tell there was a flicker of fear in his eyes. "I hope not," he finally said, then exited the infirmary, leaving Aerith alone.


End file.
